Comedy Environment News Today

jens stoltenberg was speaking as leaders of nato countries prepare to meet at a summit in madrid on tuesday. now on bbc news, its hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, im stephen sackur. what i find funny, you might find offensive. comedy challenges taste and convention and it can rouse strong reaction, as we saw at this years 0scars when a joke earned comedian chris rock a slap in the face from the actor will smith. my guest today has spent more than 25 years finding laughs in sometimes unli...

in sometimes unlikely places, omid djalili was born in london to iranian parents. he has thrived as a cross culture comedic chameleon, but is it possible to be funny without being mean? omid djalili, welcome to hardtalk. stephen sackur, my friend, my fellow presenter in the business of show, man who is so unbelievably good looking and thin that he walks into snooker hall, they start chalking his head. i am so happy to be here, this is one of my favourite shows. well, if you carry on li...

And i did a lot of those kinds ofjokes at the beginning, and i reflect on it now on my show, those are the jokes i needed to, i suppose, get into western liberal metropolitan society, for people to like me. i actually bring that gag up as a kind of gag i would never do now, and the audience laugh even more. and i talk about their white privilege as well. it was a gag which, it is very clear... that is what i am saying, that is why people need to know me as well because i am not a muslim, i am no...

The kind ofjoke that would get me into the hearts of british people. sadly. so when fellow comedians like ricky gervais suggest that the comedy environment is becoming more and more difficult to operate in, do you agree? no, i dont think it is that difficult. for me, even cancel culture is an interesting one. there was an example of a guy called dapper laughs, who had a television show on itv, and he was cancelled. and then there was the all the stuff about how appalling he was, there was all th...

I needed to, i suppose, get into western liberal metropolitan society, for people to like me. i actually bring that gag up as a kind of gag i would never do now, and the audience laugh even more. and i talk about their white privilege as well. it was a gag which, it is very clear... that is what i am saying, that is why people need to know me as well because i am not a muslim, i am not a terrorist, but that was the kind ofjoke that would get me into the hearts of british people. sadly. so when f...