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A little note on & #39;cancel culture& #39;, and why its origins aren& #39;t always what you& #39;d think. A couple of weeks ago a radio producer got in touch to ask me about a particular podcast character by @DaftLimmy, from a series he did about 14/15 years ago.
The reason why the producer got in touch with me was because one of the characters voiced by Limmy was Vijay, the son of a cornershop owner who narrates his deliveries and the people he comes across.
While Limmy subtly augments his normal speech, it& #39;s not an & #39;Apu& #39; kind of accent, but the kind of gentle emphasis on plosives which often characterises second generation South Asians in the UK (one of those & #39;you know it when you hear it& #39; kind of things).
And basically the producer wanted to know if I considered it a form of brownface, whether it was racist or problematic, should Limmy be held accountable etc etc.
I said that most comedy trades in types, some is funny and some isn& #39;t, I *didn& #39;t* think Limmy& #39;s character was racist but he wasn& #39;t a great comedic construction either (though I liked the idea of using individual voices to construct an affectionate tableau of the city).
(had to correct that tweet because I accidentally omitted a negative which changed the whole meaning lol)
I also asked the producer what capacity I was being asked to speak in - was it as someone who nurtures a love of audio comedy (cos I do!), or someone who can claim to speak for Asians who are outraged and upset (cos I& #39;m not)?
Anyway, there ends up being a radio debate between myself, Sanjeev Kohli and Andrew Doyle. And it& #39;s clear that, while he was def thoughtful and receptive, what the host expects is for at least one person to advance a & #39;cancel Limmy& #39; line so that there can be a bit of a bunfight.
But there wasn& #39;t one. I mean, I disagreed with Andrew Doyle& #39;s line that all that matters in comedy is the intention of the comedian. But other than that, the & #39;debate& #39; was against a strawman who wasn& #39;t even in the room.
What this illustrated to me - and I brought it up on the air - is that these cancel outrages are so often deliberately manufactured by the very media that wants to decry them.
It wasn& #39;t like South Asians had long had a problem with Limmy - at least, not that I& #39;m aware of - but more the case that in order to fuel a media appetite for cancel stories, broadcasters were under pressure to produce such stories into existence.
Also just want to say the producer wasn’t at all a villain here, and I think their decision to put me forward for the discussion in spite of me not being pro-cancellation in the pre-interview reflects being genuinely interested in ideas.
But the fact it was a topic at all reflects that our national broadcasters are bad at talking about racism outside of culture wars framing, which has always been a creature of the media’s own creation in the first place.
