Billy Connolly calls rise of politically correct comedy “vomit-inducing”

nme.com:

who retired from performing live in 2020 due to Parkinson’s disease, has said in a new interview that he’s against the idea that comedians should be more morally sensitive than in times past.Referencing “Black comedians” aged “generally in their 50s or 60s” who fly the flag for controversial comedy that “almost doesn’t bear watching”, he told The Guardian that he thinks it’s “fantastically good for you”.“They just say it like it is – it’s breathtaking,” he said of the cohort of unnamed comedians. “That’s wonderful and I’m glad they exist, because the social worker-ation that has passed through comedy is vomit-inducing.”He continued: “Comedians never used to worry about what was correct to say.

You said it, and you soon found out whether it was correct or not. And then you got on with it. And that was a good enough rule for me.”Connolly was speaking to his wife and carer, the former comedian-turned-psychotherapist Pamela Stephenson Connolly, in the interview.

The pair were responding to questions submitted by the outlet.Elsewhere in the article Connolly opened up about his Parkinson’s, the early symptoms of which he began experiencing 2013.Answering how the disease has evolved over time, the comedian said: “It’s very difficult to see the progression exactly, because a lot of things come and go.“Recently I’ve noticed a deterioration in my balance.

That was never such a problem before, but in the last year that has come and it has stayed. For some reason, I thought it would go away, because a lot of symptoms have come and gone away…just to defy the symptom spotters.