Last week’s Time Out contained an interview with comedian Frankie Boyle, who is described as ‘embattled’ by the magazine.

I’m not here to defend Boyle’s comments about Rebecca Adlington, which seem to me to be part of the unfortunate general laddish of a great deal of British stand-up. Quite the opposite – what Boyle said is an example of a lot of what’s wrong with a comedy on television at present. (Boyle’s remarks don’t even make him the worst offender). Nor am I going to defend Boyle over his remarks about the queen. If he had said it about anyone else Tory MPs would not have been queuing up to denounce him, but that doesn’t make it funny.

Although the so-called alternative comedy wave of the 1980s opened up new audiences to younger comedians from completely outside the conservative light entertainment establishment of Tarby, Brucie, Bennie Hill and the rest, the subsequent beneficiaries have ultimately often been comics with a laddish style.  It’s impossible to avoid them on comedy TV panel shows, which are usually completely dominated by men.

A portion of the Time Out interview is a defence of Boyle’s comments about Rebecca Adlington. He’s just wrong about that. But as a veteran of the panel shows that now dominate TV satire he is deeply critical of the depoliticisation of the format. What he says is interesting.

“The real problem is that they ask us to cover that light, frothy stuff and you’re expected to find something in it. There’s nothing intrinsically funny about ‘Things you wouldn’t say during a driving test’ or a Norwich by-election – so you’d better hope that someone looks weird or there’s some bizarre angle. Oddly this lack of meaning tends to make the comedy more extreme. If we were allowed to do stuff about equipment shortages in Afghanistan or the swine flu vaccination programme there would be more intrinsic interest for the audience and we wouldn’t need to hook them in so much. We could be gentler, more whimsical and much more sophisticated with it. But in the end they get what they ask for.”

He adds:

“…nobody in charge of television wants to hear real political comment. The number one priority in TV comedy today is ‘Don’t frighten the horses’, and it’s probably numbers two and three as well. Talent is probably number four and politics and having a point of view is f*****g nowhere. Unfortunately that’s also true for a lot of comedians. If you look at the scheduling these days, it’s all just celebrities meeting meerkats. It’s almost purposely dull. I love the BBC and I think it’s a really important thing. But if it doesn’t start producing more engaging content, a lot of people won’t f*****g watch it any more; they’ll just migrate to the internet.’

I agree with a lot of this. What passes for TV satire, at least in the panel show format, is often politically toothless, accepting conventional political wisdom rather than challenging it. A lot of it has become routine and too pleased with itself.

It’s interesting to read such a sharp critique of the form that dominates so much airtime from one of its most regular contributors.