The Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the UK riots
Last August, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe took place during the worst UK riots for many years. The riots began in London and spread to Birmingham, Manchester and numerous other cities in England before coming to an abrupt end as the police doubled their patrols. It was a good opportunity for comedians at the festival to use the rioting for comical purposes, although some media figures believed it may have been too soon to make jokes of the riots when they were still taking place.
No rioting in Scotland
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe took place without any disruption or violence, despite the unrest in many English towns and cities at the time. This was an excellent opportunity for the Scottish Government to reinforce the fact that these riots were in fact English riots, not UK riots. Since many people interpreted these events as a grim consequence of the Government’s spending cuts, the event was seen as a more of an English problem that a UK-wide one.
Should comedians joke about the riots?
Comedians with an exhibition stand need to be careful not to offend too many groups when they raise jokes about specific issues. Offending people is part of the nature of comedy and no joke would be funny unless it did offend someone. However, the riots wrought havoc on a large number of communities and numerous businesses, the effects of which are still being felt in 2012. Therefore, any jokes about events of this nature should be carefully planned and appropriate to the audience that is listening to them. In the case of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, much of the audience would have been Scottish, so joking about the English is likely to score high marks in a Scottish city (and a country that is potentially on the verge of independence from the United Kingdom).
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