I’ve finally been offended by a joke

I went to the O2 on Sunday night to see the comedians Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock. Chappelle, who survived an attempt to cancel him last year, didn’t disappoint, delivering some hilarious, politically incorrect jokes, and Rock was equally seditious, although his set went on for too long. But the rest of the evening was pretty painful.

The effort it takes to get to this relic of the New Labour era is truly Herculean. Indeed, Rock made a joke about it, claiming he’d set off from his hotel on Wednesday morning and only just arrived. The Tube station is North Greenwich, one beyond Canary Wharf, and your only hope of getting there in less than 90 minutes from west London is via jet ski along the Thames.

Once you arrive at the hideous carbuncle, you’re herded to your ‘gate’ like a pig being shown to its pen, and if you feel like a beer or a snack you have to queue for 45 minutes. That’s a recipe for boredom, not least because your mobile phone is placed in a sealed pouch the moment you arrive. If you still have an appetite by the time you get to the serving hatch, a hamburger and chips will cost you £16.50, and a pint of Budweiser – the only draft lager available – is £7.65. I’ve had cheaper meals at Michelin-starred restaurants, and this was on top of the £150 I’d paid for two tickets. If you have any goodwill left by the time you take your seat, you’re a better person than me.

Needless to say, the build-up to the headline acts was interminable, made worse by an American MC whose name I have mercifully forgotten. His worst ‘bit’ was an extended routine about the Queen and Prince Philip which began by reminding the audience that Meghan Markle had accused the royal family of being racist. ‘Thank you, detective Markle,’ he said, the gag being that the allegation is so obviously true it’s hardly worth making. ‘I mean, the Queen has colonised half the world, right?’ he said.

I immediately leaned over to my son Ludo and pedantically pointed out that, in fact, Britain had given up nearly all of its remaining colonies in the past 75 years. (‘It’s a joke, Dad,’ he whispered.) The ‘comedian’ then went on to describe a sex act between our 96-year-old monarch and her late husband which, to my horror, had the audience howling with mirth. I was so appalled I was tempted to walk out.

This was a turn-up for the books. I had come to see two comedians who are hated by left-wing puritans for making ‘offensive’ jokes about people who cannot hit back, e.g. the LGBT ‘community’. Yet here I was, pursing my lips in disapproval because their warm-up man was targeting a woman who can’t defend herself.

I regard myself as pretty broad-minded and don’t think I’ve ever been genuinely offended by a joke before, but I got an inkling of what it must be like to be a social justice warrior watching a Netflix special by a comedian you disapprove of. It wasn’t just that the joke was in appalling taste, but the fact that others found it funny which was so upsetting. ‘How dare you?’ I wanted to say to the person doubled over with laughter in front of me.

The revealing thing about the audience’s reaction was that they clearly weren’t there because they regard Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle as heroes of the anti-woke movement. If they were, they wouldn’t have laughed at a joke which involved taking it for granted that the Queen is racist. Later, they were equally appreciative of a gag by Rock ridiculing Markle for thinking it was ‘racist’ of an unnamed member of the royal family to speculate about the colour of her and Harry’s unborn child. ‘Black people have the exact same conversations,’ he said. ‘When I heard her say that, that’s when I knew she didn’t know any black people.’

I loved that bit obviously, not least because this morsel of court gossip was the sole piece of evidence Meghan produced to back up her claim that the entire royal family is racist. But Rock didn’t join the dots, so the audience were perfectly happy to laugh at this joke as well as the earlier one which essentially regurgitated Meghan’s baseless accusation. My conclusion is that Rock and Chappelle are clever enough to appeal to anti-woke warriors like me – which is the reason they have been catapulted to the forefront of the culture wars – without alienating their core audience, who aren’t really political.

On balance, I’m glad I saw these two comics and I don’t begrudge them the £150 (although I won’t set foot in the O2 again). But it was a useful reminder that for most of their fans they’re not standard-bearers for free speech. Just a couple of funny guys.