consensus manipulation Mark Thomas negotiation stand-up
SOPHIE QUIRK
University of Kent
Who’s in charge?
Negotiation,
manipulation and
comic licence in the
work of Mark Thomas
ABSTRACT
Mark Thomas is a prolific joker and social commentator. While many comedians restrict their rebellions to verbal attacks, Thomas’ material takes direct, practical effect via pranks. Under the protection of comic licence, Thomas is permitted to engage in a range of mercilessly subversive activities, and to celebrate them onstage. Like all comedians, Thomas is bound by the limits of his licence: his live audiences will reject material that crosses the line.
However, the boundaries of that licence are malleable, and audiences are not nec- essarily as discerning as one might think. This article argues that manipulation and influence are necessary components of comic licence. I first examine the nature of comic licence, demonstrating that its source has serious implications for its limits and bound- aries. I then analyse Mark Thomas’ performance in detail, weighing up the extent to which the audience may police the boundaries of comic licence against the possibility that the comedian may dupe them into laying down their resistance altogether.
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Mark Thomas is a social commentator whose work spans several genres. He has been an activist, campaigner, journalist, writer and performer, but above all he is a comedian. It is not only political purpose and ideology that unites Thomas’ work and gives it his distinctive mark. Thomas performs stand-up comedy and enacts witty pranks on the campaign trail. Even in his New
Statesman column, he offered a bounty to any individual willing to assassinate
George W. Bush with ‘a lethal papier-mâché weapon’ (Thomas 2002). It is joking which characterizes Thomas’ work.
Thomas and his associates have an impressive record: they have taken both the British and Turkish governments to court, and targeted big business from Coca-Cola to the arms trade (Thomas 2008a: 2006). His website displays a strik- ing curriculum vitae of achievements, including a change to the law on inherit- ance tax following Thomas’ exposure of unfair loopholes in his 1998 Dispatches programme, and the collapse of initial plans to build the Illisu Dam, a big busi- ness project which would have displaced thousands of local inhabitants and destroyed important Kurdish cultural centres (Thomas & YWGAV 2009).
Pranks form a central theme in Thomas’ work, and it is here that the prac- tical effects of his comedy are most direct and obvious. In the wake of the 2009 scandal over abuse of expense privileges by Members of Parliament, Thomas and his associates kidnapped a bay tree belonging to MP Margaret Moran, and issued an open letter demanding her resignation as a ransom. The ransom was not delivered, and the tree was publicly beheaded in Trafalgar Square (Thomas & YWGAV 2009). When the Serious Organized Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) made it illegal to demonstrate in a designated area sur- rounding Parliament Square without police authorization, Thomas arranged for hundreds of individuals to protest by sending in applications which ranged from the frivolous to the meaningful. As each protest required an application to be processed and approved, the tactic achieved administrative mayhem (Thomas 2007).
Thomas’ pranks are distinctly comedic in themselves. To apply the term ‘hostage’ to an inanimate and non-sentient tree constitutes a wittily incon- gruous subversion. Similarly, to use the police applications process against itself demonstrates an instinct for mockery. These acts are not only eloquent protests; they are also funny. Many of Thomas’ pranks are relived onstage, with his stand-up material often hinging on accounts of his exploits as a cam- paigner. Here Thomas submits the practical joke for his audience’s appre- ciation and approval, signalled mainly through laughter and other positive responses.
Despite the strong current of egalitarianism and human decency that runs through Thomas’ work, it may be argued that some of his activities are not very nice. ‘Kidnapping’ a tree is theft of property; even if we accept the argu- ment that it was paid for by the taxpayer and is merely being returned to its rightful owner. Beheading it is unkind, not only to the owner but to the tree itself. In his 2007 show ‘Serious Organized Criminal’, Thomas reports upon the campaign against SOCPA, eliciting much laughter at the expense of the frustrated, over-worked policemen whom he repeatedly placed in difficult, anxiety-provoking positions (Thomas 2007). Yet Thomas’ audiences do not revile him for unkindness; indeed, such a response would appear inexcusably curmudgeonly. Like any comedian, Thomas is excused from certain conven- tions of ‘decency’ because of the comic licence under which he works.
As Mary Douglas (1970) demonstrates, the joke is essentially a means of challenge and negotiation. The joke may attack the obvious sources of
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authority in the form of politicians or law enforcers. Otto (2001) provides several examples, from various cultures and epochs, where despots actually changed their rulings as a result of politically-motivated lampooning from court jesters. Indeed, it was one of the functions of the jester to provide the monarch with counsel that other advisors, lacking the protection of comic licence, would not dare to offer. The joke is also an important means of nego- tiation on the popular level, where it is used to challenge our collective values, behaviour and ways of thinking. Mintz’ account of audience behaviour during a Redd Foxx routine on the subject of oral sex shows this process in action; while the older members of the audience demonstrated discomfort during the discussion of a topic which they perceived as taboo, the upcoming generation used the routine to create and affirm a new set of rules:
The younger people in the audience leaned toward Foxx, often applauded, raised their hands or fists as though cheering a political speaker with whom they were in agreement […] For them Foxx was the counter- culture spokesman with the courage (and the comically protected situ- ation) to state publicly and openly that the sexual taboo against oral sex was[…]no longer valid.
(Mintz 1985: 76, original emphasis)
As Douglas asserts, a joke relies upon challenge, for jokes are characterized by identification and mockery of the discrepancy between common practice and that which is considered logical, fair or ‘better’. Mintz articulated this function of the joke in the eloquent phrase, ‘a critique of the gap between what is and what we believe should be’ (Mintz 1985: 77). Comic licence is a vital social tool; when used properly, it allows the joker to challenge what is considered unquestionable and to play with ideas that may be considered dangerous, taboo or disgusting, safe from the possible repercussions of anger or damage to reputation.
Comic licence does, however, have limits. Douglas explains what we know from experience: ‘there are jokes that can be perceived clearly enough by all present but which are rejected at once[…]Social requirements may judge a joke to be in bad taste, risky, too near the bone, improper or irrelevant’ (Douglas 1970: 152). For Douglas, the key to successful joking is to remain within the boundaries of consensus. The choice of topic and its handling must be carefully managed to avoid trespassing upon ‘values which are judged too precious and too precarious to be exposed to challenge,’ or those other aspects of the social structure which are not deemed to be open for comment and debate (Douglas 1970: 152).
Thomas’ work aims to be influential, engaging audiences in energetic cri- tique of their social structures and eliciting their agreement with Thomas’ radi- cal political outlook: yet we know that Thomas can only succeed by remaining within the boundaries of acceptability. Balanced precariously between two vital but opposed tasks, Thomas must skilfully negotiate and manipulate those boundaries. To understand this process, we must first discern what it is that gives comedians their licence.