Laughter To Save The World

I knew that the comedian Chris McGlade had an important message to share and I was not disappointed when I saw him yesterday at The Open Door in Southampton. His show ‘Forgiveness’ is about the extraordinary story of forgiving the man who murdered his father, on the day he heard the news. The show tells the story of his life, growing up in working-class Middlesborough, a life which was the ‘boot camp’ that culminated in the moment he was able to forgive. 

I’ve been following Chris’s posts on fb for a while, and they drew my attention to an ‘-ism’ that we don’t hear much about; classism. Do a quick search in the news for the different ‘isms’ and you will see which get the most coverage. While rarely a day goes by when sexism, racism, and transphobia aren’t in the news, ‘classism’ is less commonly written about. I had been wondering why, and Chris’s show explains it. 

Chris told his audience hilarious stories about doing comedy in working men’s clubs, and he describes laughter as being like a release in the pressure cooker of life. Where there might have been racial tensions, division, or hatred, laughter acted as release, it united people. It might have been edgy, cheeky, but it came from a place of love. 

However, now, according to Chris, in the more ‘PC’ world, we are not allowed to laugh anymore. Jokes are misinterpreted, deemed offensive and inappropriate. People are cancelled with a lack of understanding of where the message is coming from. 

Because in a middle class dominated culture, many people don’t get the working-class culture, and this kind of humour. 

And here’s the thing, that Chris pointed out, that the working-class are the majority, and in an elitist, capitalist culture, unity amongst the working classes threatens the system that exploits them. So the pressure cooker release of laughter has been taken away, the media stirs things up, and society becomes more and more divided about issues such as race, sexuality, politics, COVID restrictions etc. 

It’s funny as the morning before the show, I went into my favourite, left-wing independent bookshop, and I bought a ridiculously priced notebook because I wanted to support them rather than get something cheaper at the local Sainsburys. As I browsed the table of books, I saw they were all about saving the planet, going green, veganism, alongside one titled, ‘’How to make a vaccine.’’ 

And I wondered about the solutions in those books, and how many of them tie in to the goals of The World Economic Forum, to reduce carbon output, and shift towards more plant-based diets. Those books in this alternative bookshop looked so alluring with their image of activism and standing up for our rights. Yet, how can it be real when it aligns with the very aims of the most rich and upper class elites who meet in Davos each year? 

As I listened to Chris McGlade last night, I felt that he had, perhaps the most important solution that I have heard for our world’s problems - laughter. 

When speech gets policed, and can result in a jail sentence, causing laughter risks becoming a criminal offence. In a cancel culture, where people are more concerned with getting ahead, their image, or their bank balance, then there is nothing to ease the pressure of a divided society. 

We need laughter, and edgy comedy. We need to listen and learn from people who are different from us. We need bottom-up solutions from everyday people, rather than top down ones from elites who profit from human disasters. We need to question our media fed opinions and think ‘beyond the wings’ or whether we are left and right. I am not exaggerating when I say that everyone needs to see this show. We need to get out, talk to people, and most importantly have a good laugh.