But comic welcomes the fact he's evolved

Frank Skinner says he wouldn’t get away with the jokes he used to crack in the 1990s today.

But rather than bemoaning ‘cancel culture’ he welcomed the way that ‘woke’ politics had forced him to reappraise his material.

The 67-year-old comedian said it was the 'norm' to crack racist, sexist and homophobic jokes when he was growing up, and that informed his early, often rude, stand-up.

Speaking on The Today Podcast, he told host Amol Rajan: 'Sometimes even on videos of me from the 90s, I see myself do a joke and I think "Oh, I wouldn't do that now" because it might be a joke I now find a bit offensive.

'It's interesting this because the most asked question is "can you do stand up comedy in the age of woke politics?" and all that stuff. 

‘But, my comedy is very autobiographical, I don't make anything up, it's just things that have happened in my life which I process through my comedy head. So, it's the other way around, I change and then my act changes.

'All this recent woke politics of the last 10 years, has had an affect on me, I've become a parent during that period.

'When I was growing up in the West Midlands, I got to be brutal, racist, language, sexist, language, homophobic, it was absolutely the norm.

'It wasn't that I wasn't listening to the alternate voice, there was no alternate voice. I didn't even question it.

'But I do question it now and I have questioned it a lot. I think most of us have in recent years, I don't feel forced or bullied by woke politics - I feel educated by it.'

'So, I see stuff now and I think "I wouldn't do that now". But at the same time, it's healthy to think that, because I don't want to think of my life in stasis.’

Skinner kicks off a three-week run of his stand-up show 30 Years Of Hurt at the Guilgud Theatre in the West End on Monday. Tickets

Published: 2 Aug 2024