http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/?service=Rss http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/will-the-real-michael-mcintyre-please-stand-up-1823680.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/will-the-real-michael-mcintyre-please-stand-up-1823680.html ]]> <p>Michael McIntyre never stops beaming, never stops punctuating his commentary with hearty laughter, not even when he is recounting how, not so very long ago, he broke down in public and sobbed at the failure of his career to take off.</p> Features Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:17 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/comic-relief-zadie-smiths-passion-for-british-comedy-1823815.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/comic-relief-zadie-smiths-passion-for-british-comedy-1823815.html ]]> <p> As this decade sinks towards an end, its frothy beginnings now feel like a dream. </p> Features Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-can-we-please-stand-up--for-michael-mcintyre-1821757.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-can-we-please-stand-up--for-michael-mcintyre-1821757.html ]]> <p>Like most parents of teenagers, I have grown used to the experience of the television's sound being turned off when I walk into the room. It is a reversal of the relationship that used to exist between the generations. Forty or so years ago, parents would do this to shield their children from something which might shock them. Now it is our children who turn the sound down to protect our ears from obscenities which they regard as suitable only for adolescents.</p> Dominic Lawson Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/q-when-is-a-joke-not-a-joke-a-when-its-offence-1816572.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/q-when-is-a-joke-not-a-joke-a-when-its-offence-1816572.html ]]> <p>Who's laughing now? After decades of standing close to the edge, pushing the envelope and tearing down barriers, Britain's comedians find themselves cornered as never before. Once they'd have smirked at criticisms in the right-wing newspapers but that's not so easy now those headlines can prompt a surge of online outrage that can have broadcast executives fearful for their jobs and theatre managers pulling out of contracts.</p> Features Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/jack-dee-the-bbcrsquos-populism-is-no-joke-1814131.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/jack-dee-the-bbcrsquos-populism-is-no-joke-1814131.html ]]> <p>Dee. That's dee for dour, or dee as in dry and deadpan and, yes, droll. But not dee for dresser. "The snappiest dresser in comedy," Esquire magazine once said of Jack Dee, which is to entirely miss the point behind his act. </p> Profiles Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000