Nasty Comedians

In the lecture, the different types of comedy were discussed. A discussion that was aired on Radio 4 about the same topic is here: http://www.nasty-girls.co.uk/Interviews.html
I think that the comedians who only use the "Superiority Theory"-

“Much humour seeks to confirm the status quo either by denigrating a certain sector of society, as in sexist humour, or by laughing at the alleged stupidity of a social outsider.” Simon Critchley. On Humour, Routledge, 2002. p.12.

- are not actually very funny. An example of this would be Bernard Manning. Apart from the fact he was a racist, sexist, tosser, I also think it is lazy humour and as was said in the lecture, the subject of the joke could be substituted for anything else. The structure of the jokes are much the same, and the same joke re-told in different ways isn't funny to me.
Another example of this, for me, is Frankie Boyle. I think he can be very funny, but because he has become known for "being bad", or" nasty", his act has become non-stop nastiness, rather than his early work, which was a mixture of comments, critiques, insights, rather than just trying to be non stop controversial. I think it becomes less funny, being nasty for the sake of it.
In the lecture, we discussed that humour can be dissenting:

“Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.” Mark Twain. (https://wolf.wlv.ac.uk/lssc/40028/bad%20comedians.ppt?menu=87895)

So I think that nasty comedians have power, and that it depends on who the subject of their jokes are. I think that comedy can change things as it makes people think about a subject in a new way:

“A joke is a play upon form that affords an opportunity for realizing that an accepted pattern has no necessity” Mary Douglas. Implicit Meanings: Essays in Anthropology. 1975, Routledge, p.96.

I think that comedians should be nasty, but use other humour as well, and also have a valid subject to be nasty about! An example of this is Mark Thomas, who I think is brilliant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ccNcbgMGuk&feature=related