Australia and the UK have a long, storied history of comedy. It has produced some great performers. However, one must look at it and think, where is the conservative comedy element? The liberty-oriented element? Has it disappeared with the death of Barry Humphries?
Pondering this question and reflecting on Barry’s many great contributions, one has to wonder, what the future holds?
I would argue there is a case for a conservative liberty-oriented version of comedy going into the future. How would I know this and why would I be so confident there is room for comedy of a conservative liberty orientation?
To answer this question I have to take you back to 2012. I was thumbing through the library at the University of Queensland’s St Lucia campus and struck upon a most unusual book.
It was entitled In Defence of Freedom of Speech – From Ancient Greece to Andrew Bolt by the esteemed author Chris Berg. A monograph special published by the Institute of Public Affairs, the book ranges over the history of freedom of speech.
What is unusual about this is that Mr Berg, on page 107, outlines the story of William Hone. Hone was an 1800s London-based publisher and satirist brought up on charges of obscenity. Regarding his pamphlets, many examples can be found of a salacious and even subversive element which immediately made me laugh!
Whilst on the floor laughing, I realised that a story could be told about freedom of speech through the prism of William Hone.
After writing a treatment and eight half-hour episodes. The story of William Hone came alive in my mind. London-based during the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, ideas, coffee houses, exchanging new-fangled understandings of the universe, it all fell into place.
I was laughing because Mr Berg had cracked open a door that could intellectually lead to something awesome, a comedy show about Freedom of Speech in an age totally different to our own but divining the issues of today through the values of yesterday.
I believe the story of William Hone demonstrates a strong intellectual case for conservative comedy. However, there’s a problem. How does one overcome decades of leftist dominance of the cultural and intellectual levers of power?
What to do? If this were a trial I would submit your honour that William Hone would make an excellent sitcom of what conservative-aligned free speech is and isn’t and make the modern millennial viewer think critically, perhaps for the first time.
Oddly I still dream about this idea. Perhaps I should find a cartoonist and do a comic strip. In the end, there is a case for conservative comedy! I still believe!
Tim Humphries is a self-taught screenwriter, who writes from Brisbane, Queensland. He can be contacted at mothyspace@gmail.com
