I'm an open micer (beginner level stand up comedian), and my favourite kind of jokes are edgy jokes, comedians like anthony jeselnik, frankie boyle are examples of edgy comics for reference.
I like to make an edgy joke every now and then when I go on stage, but recently I found out this was ILLIGAL. I went into a rabbit hole and found a bunch of cases where people got arrested for making jokes that were edgy, and it was hard to believe, but it's true. Here's some examples:
1. Count dankula, and the nazi pug joke video:
Count dankula is a youtube comedian , he makes funny videos and was fairly unknown before he uploaded this video. Basically he turned his dog into a nazi to troll his girl.
Anyway the video went viral, and later he got arrested for "communicating a grossly offensive message" via the Internet. He got charged and convicted with a "hate crime" FOR A JOKE. You might not think it's funny but who in their right mind would want to send people to prison for a joke?
He was ordered to pay a fine of £800 ($1023 for you americans) which he refused to pay as a matter of principle and for his right to free expression.
Anyway he's probably gonna get sent to prison for refusing to pay the fine. All for an edgy joke mind you.
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2. Ross loraine, edgy twitter joke:
Here's the story.
https://m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/12/23/glasgow-crash-tweet_n_6371428.html
ross loraine 19 at the time, made a joke on twitter about a crash that happened the same day. It was a bin lorry (garbage truck for the Americans) that crashed into 100 people out shopping. That's when he wrote on twitter : "So a bin lorry has apparently driven in 100 people in Glasgow eh, probably the most trash it's picked up in one day" offended people called the police on him, there was a warrant for his arrest , but he handed himself in and accepted a caution from the police. FOR A JOKE.
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3. The grenfell tower joke:
This is the most recent one I could find. Basically about a year ago a residentical tower was on fire and it was all over the news here in the uk, some people died , some injured and it was a big deal at the time. Anyway a year later 5 guys make a joke youtube video about it, where they make a joke of the fire by putting a cardboard building on a bonfire and mimicking screaming people jumping off the windows. They also got arrested few weeks ago and who knows if they're gonna go to prison or what. All for an edgy joke.
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There's probably bunch of these that I'm not aware of thousands of people get arrested for offensive tweets or edgy Internet communications in general every year. And this isn't only limited to the Internet, it's also irl communication , a guy got arrested for telling a police officer his horse was gay, and that's a true story
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https://metro.co.uk/2005/06/08/arrested-for-gay-horse-jibe-590815/
There are actual laws that make it illigal to say anything "grossly offensive" be it through the Internet or any other medium of communication.
In the communications act 2003 where
"Section 127 of the
act makes it an offence to send a message that is
grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character over a public electronic communications network." That's just an example of one of them.
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So all that brings us here, where I'm trying to mind my own business and tell jokes to people in comedy clubs so that hopefully one day I can make a career out of this, but i don't feel safe doing the jokes I want tell after finding out about all this , I even made a Facebook post about it in a comedians Facebook group and when comedians read that I was making edgy jokes they were outraged, almost no comedian agreed with me and the rest were busy commenting insults because they were offended that I said I make edgy jokes.
What the fuck?! Like srsly I'm just trying to tell jokes, even the comedians who need free speech more than anyone were completely for the idea of arresting people who make edgy jokes.
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The overwhelming majority of comedians are die hard liberals here in the uk which might explain why they disagreed with me so strongly. Since somehow free speech went from being a left wing issue to a right wing issue and so they were being libtards pushing against the apparently right wing idea of freedom of speech. Personally im not left wing, I'm not right wing I don't really get involved in politics and never vote because I don't really care. But I do care about being able to tell jokes without the threat of getting arrested because I offended someone by a joke.
What happened to free expression in the uk?
And how can we change the laws so I can go all out with my edgy material?
Share your thoughts on the matter.
