Prolific comedian Richard Herring has said there are “funny things to come out of disability”.
The 51-year-old writer and performer has said that material has changed from merely mocking the disabled, and just because you are laughing “doesn’t mean you don’t take it seriously”.
Herring formed one half of a double act with Stewart Lee before penning a string of solo shows and beginning the famed Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast.
He has said that his own comedy has moved on since the 90s, and that material meant to belittle and mock is not as popular as it once may have been.
After running the London Marathon for disability charity Scope, he has become a patron of the charity which is pushing for greater representation in the media.
Herring believes that a new generation of comedians can make disability funny in a new way.
The stand-up said: “Like all people, I probably did material in the 90s that I wouldn’t use now, or casually used words that I wouldn’t use now. That changed for me.
“There are funny things that come from disability.
“Comedy is a downward slicing sword sometimes, looking down and laughing at people. Most people aren’t into that stuff anymore. Using comedy to ostracise people.
“But comedy can bring people together. Just because you are laughing at the issue, or with it, doesn’t mean you don’t take it seriously.
“You can use your own experience and address the subject. There are a lot of great disabled comedians.”
Herring is gearing up to compare a stand-up show dedicated to disability and comedy with the second Joke for Scope evening – which will star Russell Howard and Rosie Jones.
I was such an idiot in the 1990s (and 80s and 70s and noughties and whatever this decade is called)I was cool int he 60s though.
— Richard K Herring (@Herring1967) August 20, 2018
The veteran of the Edinburgh Fringe believes new comedians are approaching disability in a fresh way – although he accepts there will always be those who push the boundaries.
He said: “Things are getting better with disability.
“You will get offensive comedians talking about disability, or race, or what Boris Johnson – which he said was a joke – said.”
But Herring’s views have changed and he has spoken of the under-representation of disabled people in the media, saying that of a reported 22% disabled populous there is only around 2% media representation.
He wants to see this addressed as he confronts that fact that most people will face some kind of disability in life.
The comedian said: “I remember asking someone ‘If you are called disabled, what do you call people who aren’t?’, and she said ‘the not-yet-disabled’.
“That struck home. You’re either going to be disabled or dead. As you get older there is always going to be something that affects you.”
Herring is due to compare the Joke for Scope show at the Union Chapel in Islington on September 20.