Everyone loves edgy comedy, until you take on a sacred cow

Newfoundlanders are known for their comedy. 

So there was a willing audience as local comedian and author Ed Riche spoke with Rick Mercer about comedy, and the value of challenging political correctness, at an event in St. John's. 

That is, until Riche dared to take on Newfoundland and Labrador's most sombre anniversary: Memorial Day, which marks the day 700 soldiers from the Royal Newfoundland Regiment were killed during the First World War. 

"I said I found the whole celebration around the commemoration around Newfoundland's losses at Beaumont-Hamel kind of mawkish, and sepia-toned and I thought  that that would be my next target, and I was going to sort of celebrate, I think, not the bravery and the glory and loss, but the wisdom of cowardice."

After that, the room went quiet. 

But to Riche, that just proves his point: it's comedy's job to take on the things we take most seriously. 

Below is an edited and condensed version of Ed Riche's conversation with Jim Brown. 

So a hundred years after the fact, why do you think people reacted as strongly? Why did that particular example of where you wanted to go with your humour cause people to step back and say "no, that's too much, that's too far"? 

Well, we all have our pieties. And the job of comedy and satire is to knock those down.

Have you experienced similar reactions to other work that you've done? Have you ever stopped and said "maybe I went too far"? 

Oh, no! That's my job, to go too far. I think that comedy doesn't work unless it's transgressive. I mean, TV comedies, good-natured TV comedies about happy, well-adjusted characters just aren't funny. 

People try it occasionally, but it's not funny. So, comedy needs to push against boundaries. 

An experience I had, the one that comes to mind right now, is, I was working on a former CBC Radio show called The Great Eastern. We did an item one time about the testing of cosmetics on animals, and the rejection of that by animal rights people. 

So, we did a spoof where instead of animals, they were testing them on celebrities. For instance, they were dropping shampoo into William Shatner's eye and he was screaming in agony, because obviously it was a failed test. 

Well, that show ran on Saturday morning, and when we came in on Monday morning, the answering machine was blocked with angry, violent, threatening comments from animal rights people. 

So they felt you were minimizing the suffering of animals just by making a joke? 

Yes, because we were making light of it.

But if comedians, and comic writers, aren't allowed to take pokes at our sacred cows, who is? 

We have to. It's kind of a...maybe they have Trump now because someone didn't do those impersonations on SNL and so on before. Maybe you need comedy and satire to be like a distant early warning system. 

The media needs people doing that kind of stuff so it can alert us to potential problems down the road. 

And, it tests reactions too. You know, if you poke them, you see how they respond. And without that, with fear of any kind of restriction of speech is going to limit inquiry.

Maybe they have Trump now because someone didn't do those impersonations on SNL and so on before. Maybe you need comedy and satire to be like a distant early warning system.- Ed Riche

Is there anything that should be off limits in comedy? 

No. No! Absolutely not, absolutely not. 

I think, as soon as you say "that's off limits," that's the reason to go for it. 

Think of the laughter response. You put your hand over your mouth like "oh my," right? If it doesn't do that, doesn't give you a jolt, it doesn't work. There's a "gasp" factor to a laugh.