Don’t make jokes about Scotland

The comedy show Burnistoun included a really funny sketch about civic pride, which is one of my favourites (it’s at about 15:50 into the clip):

I was reminded of it this week when the comedian Susan Calman received a barrage of abuse for saying something perfectly accurate about Scottish politics. As the Scotsman reports, Calman said this about the independence debate:

At the moment it is just two people shouting, ‘Aye, we will have it’ and someone going ‘No, we won’t’

Perfectly true and not vaguely party political, so of course some people have gone crazy. It turns out that Susan is a traitor who has betrayed all of Scotland. She’s received death threats. Internet death threats, of course, but they’re still death threats. As Brian Wilson writes, also in The Scotsman:

The idea of anyone taking offence at this is almost beyond belief – anywhere but in Scotland. And that is the reason why Susan Calman’s subsequent blog on the subject deserves the widest possible audience of thinking people in Scotland.

This ties in with something Susan talked about on Twitter recently: the lack of satire on Scottish television. At the time I thought the problem was Rory Bremner Syndrome – it’s near-impossible to get satire right, and it often comes across as unbearable smuggery – but I’m beginning to wonder if it’s because broadcasters just can’t be arsed dealing with the inevitable abuse.

If you’d like to read more, Susan’s blog is here.


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