Rowan Atkinson hits back at cancel culture and comedy: ‘Every joke has a victim’

Rowan Atkinson has had his say on cancel culture and the effect it can have on comedy, believing you should be allowed to make jokes about ‘absolutely anything’.

Many comedians over recent years have come under fire for their material being too near the knuckle, but Rowan doesn’t believe anything should be off-limits to be politically correct.

Rowan has previously rallied against cancel culture and even campaigned for a modification to the UK’s Religious Hatred Bill in the mid-naughties to allow performers are leeway to criticise religion within their act, as well as to have the notion of ‘insult’ removed from the UK’s Public Order Bill.

He told the Irish Times: ‘It does seem to me that the job of comedy is to offend, or have the potential to offend, and it cannot be drained of that potential.

‘Every joke has a victim. That’s the definition of a joke. Someone or something or an idea is made to look ridiculous.’

The Mr Bean star also hit back at the suggestion that comedy should exclusively punch up at those in power and never down at those who are more defenceless.

He explained: ‘I think you’ve got to be very, very careful about saying what you’re allowed to make jokes about. You’ve always got to kick up? Really?

‘What if there’s someone extremely smug, arrogant, aggressive, self-satisfied, who happens to be below in society? They’re not all in houses of parliament or in monarchies.

‘There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.’

He also drew similarities with Fawlty Towers star John Cleese, as much of both of their comedy had taken aim at the ‘three pillars of the old-fashioned British establishment’ – namely the Church of England, aristocracy and the army.