When I first heard that Channel
Four had commissioned a ‘sit-com’ about the Famine I winced. My reaction was one of revulsion. The famine remains a special kind of horror
that we may still be coming to terms with as a nation. The National Famine Monument in Co Mayo was only
unveiled in 1997 and it was not until 2008 that we, as a country inaugurated a
National Famine Commemoration Day. Why
did we take so long to begin to deal with this catastrophe? Do we carry the horror of starving to death in
our DNA as a kind of race memory? Do we
Irish people of today carry some residue of guilt that our families survived
and remained in Ireland? I think all of
these questions may have an affirmative answer.
I know I was not alone is experiencing
revulsion at the idea of a comedy being set around those awful years between
1845 and 1850. There is currently an
online petition with over 20,000 signatures against this proposed project.
But once I got over my initial
reaction I was almost equally disturbed by the notion that I might consider
certain topics to be off limits to comedy or satire. All my life I have found humour even in the
darkest moments. And I believe that it
is this ability to see the absurd even in the tragic that has regularly saved
my sanity. I am a huge believer in the
power of humour to make life bearable and at times joyful beyond
explanation. There is nothing as
exhilarating as to be taken to that place where you are literally crying with
laughter.
We lost American comedian Joan
Rivers last year. At times Ms River’s
comedy made me wince too. Particularly
when she attacked someone for being fat or ugly – or God forbid, both. I still think that personal attacks are the
lowest form of wit. Ricky Gervais is
another purveyor of this brand of humour.
I like my comedy to be a bit clever.
When Ms Rivers died, I tweeted that
I sometimes found her humour to be cruel rather than funny. That tweet didn’t earn me any new followers
and I was taken to task by a number of her fans online.
Over Christmas, ITV screened ‘An
Audience with Joan Rivers’ which was originally aired in 2005. Towards the end of the programme she was
asked if there was anything she wouldn’t joke about. Her answer completely won me over.
It’s a well known fact that her
husband committed suicide (as she says, ‘in the 80s when it was still chic’). She explained that when she went back on
stage the first time after his death, she
could feel the audience wondering how she would be. She tackled their curiosity head on. Her first joke was about suicide.
However, she then went on to talk
about how her beloved daughter, Melissa reacted after the sudden death of her
father. Melissa has spoken him on the
phone the night before he died. Melissa was
also the only person home when the phone call came to say he passed away. Joan got somewhat emotional when she
explained how, for over a week after the funeral, she couldn’t reach her poor
15 year old daughter. Finally she took
her out to dinner to a very expensive restaurant in Hollywood. As they looked at the menus Joan said “you
know Melissa, if you father were here looking at these prices, he’d kill
himself all over again”. And Melissa
laughed. Connection was re-established.
I think there is a reason that we
are the only species on earth that have a sense of humour. I am sure that our ability to laugh is
designed as a release valve – a way of making life more bearable, especially at
times of disaster – personal, national or indeed global.
Joan Rivers can joke about suicide
because she has experienced it at close quarters (and she did a lot of charity
work around the issue). There was a
truth in her comedy.
The young man commissioned by
Channel Four to write this sit com about the Famine is Hugh Travers. He is Irish.
So too is the production company, Deadpan Pictures. That also makes a difference. So although the project may air on a British
TV station, it will be an Irish creation.
We Irish should be the first to
make comedy around the Famine, because we know the truth of it. It won’t lessen the horror of what
happened. It won’t insult the memory of
those that died. It won’t change anything. No more than the movie ‘Good Morning Vietnam’
lessened the horror of the Vietnam War.
But it had better be funny. To be unfunny would be unforgiveable. I wish
Mr Travers the best of luck.
