Woke comedians warned over support for Graham Linehan show cancellation - ‘Turkeys voting for Christmas!’
Comedians have come out in support of the cancellation of Graham Linehan's show
GB News / Comedy Unleashed
Woke comedians have been warned over their support for the “shutting down” of a comedy show at Edinburgh Fringe featuring Graham Linehan.
The world-renowned comedy writer had his stand-up performance taken off the bill by the venue due to a lack of “alignment” with their beliefs.
The co-writer of Father Ted has become a prominent gender critic, a standpoint which he claims has resulted in a “discriminatory” cancellation.
Comedians such as Marc Burrows and Mark Lamarr have defended the venue’s decision, with the latter even stating that having different ideas is not in the festival’s best interests.
WATCH ANDREW DOYLE REACT TO GRAHAM LINEHAN'S CANCELLATION BELOW
Comedy Unleashed co-founder Andrew Doyle, who arranged the event in the first place, said on GB News that his fellow comedians could find themselves in a similar predicament in years to come.
“You can’t anticipate what is going to be the thing in ten years that gets you cancelled”, he told Patrick Christys.
“It’s impossible. If I was to bet on it, it might be the ageism thing. You find a lot of the woke activists say ‘okay boomer’ and they really hate older people.
“During the Brexit debate, a lot of people were basically saying that it would be great when they all die off.
“It’s interesting because Graham Linehan used to be on the side of the leftie activists and he used to go after people online.
“One very prominent person who got cancelled sent him a message and said ‘Graham, they will come for you eventually’.
Leo Kearse said comedians coming out in support of Linehan are like 'turkeys voting for Christmas'
GB News
“This should be a lesson to us all. Live and let live, allow free speech above all else, and if you don’t like something, you can ridicule or protest it, but shutting it down, no way.”
Fellow GB News presenter Leo Kearse backed the sentiment, saying comedians coming out in support of Leith Arches’ decision to pull the gig is “like turkeys voting for Christmas”.
He told Martin Daubney and Pip Thomson: “I couldn’t believe it. Other comedians are actually supporting this, they’re saying ‘this is good’, are you nuts?
“You’re going to get cancelled as well. The idea that you’re always going to be on the right side of accepted opinion is nonsense in the comedy world.
“When comedians go up on stage, we don’t need moral arbiters, we don’t need a judge and jury, we have an audience.”
In an Instagram post, the venue explained the decision was made as they are “inclusive” and therefore Linehan’s views “do not align with our overall values”.
They added: “we work very closely with the LGBT+ community, it is a considerable part of our revenue, we believe hosting this one-off show would have a negative effect on future bookings.”
Linehan told GB News that he is considering a legal challenge over the matter.
“It can’t go on”, he told Patrick Christys.
“LGB Alliance have just come out of a long, vexatious court case brought against them by Mermaids.
Luckily Mermaids have been found out and are now under statutory investigation.
“We can’t let these people who have some very dangerous ideas and some very big things to hide.
“There’s some bad people in this movement, they use the cover given to them by transexuals, which is a hugely sympathetic group, understandably so.
“But many of these people online are fully untapped men with long hair and finger nails who are doing things like sending death threats to JK Rowling.
“It has to be exposed, and if it means having to take legal action against this venue, I will.”
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