27 March 2023 , 17:33
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Some things have to be seen to be believed.
Elements of so-called comedian Alfie Brown’s “humour” fall squarely into that category.
Not in a positive sense, either. More in a double take, mind-totally-blown kind of way.
Video surfaced over the weekend of Brown – who has appeared on the BBC’s Live At The Apollo – joking about the Grenfell fire of June 2017.
Yes, really.
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The man nominated for the main prize at the 2022 Edinburgh Comedy Awards, really did watch footage of the blaze that killed 72 people and think to himself: “I’ll make a note of that to use in my routine.”
A total of 72 people died in the Grenfell fire in 2017 (Getty Images)A human being really did watch the UK’s most deadly residential fire since the Second World War and see it as a potentially suitable subject to elicit laughs about.
He could easily have punched up at the politicians’ empty words or the widespread lack of accountability for a tragedy that will forever shame this country.
Instead he chose cheap laughs about having his thunder stolen after he’d appeared on TV for the first time. He punched down at the lives lost, the families shattered, the communities wrecked and the emergency services traumatised.
Shame, too, on the audience members who laughed at his “punchlines”.
All too often the comics get deserved stick for straying into territory that anybody with a shred of decency would remain well away from.
But if more paying customers made their disgust clear then perhaps comics would think twice.
Instead, Brown’s audiences were shown in more resurfaced footage giggling away as he says: “I would never **** a 14-year-old. But that of course does not mean that I wouldn’t absolutely love to!”
He won’t be cancelled. Given the litany of places where individuals who claim to have been silenced eventually pop up, Brown ultimately will be fine.
And at least he has now apologised for a 2015 routine scattered with racist language – including the n and p words – which drew condemnation from fellow comedians.
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But Brown needs a reboot.
Perhaps the avalanche of praise early in his career led him to believe he really could say the unsayable.
Perhaps he has too many fake friends unable to tell him when and where he has crossed the line.
Either way, he needs to rethink his material. Otherwise he might just find his audiences gradually shrinking.