‘Authentic Stupidity’: Ben Elton on how idiotic humans can be

‘Authentic Stupidity’: Ben Elton on how idiotic humans can be

you can’t say anything anymore can you now identity politics can be risky terrain for a comedian but Ben Elton has been pulling it off since the 80s we got 4 million unemployed what have they done put the price of up I mean that’ll solve it w it 80s era Elton was just as high energy after more than four decades on stage the standup returns for a UK tour later this year talk to us about your tour authentic stupidity this this isn’t therapy although we are sitting in quite therapy setup isn’t it tell me about your childood and what is the title all about well I don’t normally give my tours a title and I didn’t really need to give this one because it is just been out and live which is what I normally say and indeed any of my tours could have been called authentic stupidity when I was writing all this material it’s all new material you know everyone was talking about artificial intelligence I mean sunak actually had his famous conference where you know Elon Musk actually sat there and said oh yeah I mean we don’t really know but it’s perfectly possible that within 5 years Humanity will be redundant you’ll all be out of work now if that was a terrorist speaking we’d be on the phone to MI6 in a second we’ve invented a machine that might well put everybody out of work within five years and and and we’re all going it’s the existential threat to humanity but hey it might be able to write a new Beatles song so hey you know little bit give little bit take that take it you’re not a big fan of Elon Musk oh look it’s selective I mean you no not not not not particularly you know when I was young you’re too young to remember this but we there used to be a benchmark for the richest bloke in the world like there’s this bloke arist toal ND he own his own ship he’s got his own yacht and it was like that was that was something only the SAR and the queen had you know but this bloke’s got his own private yacht his ship now they’re queuing up there’s a yacht Jam outside can Harbor and they’re all trying to lure Leonardo capao to get on board and you know with his latest whatever you know and so they can be in Hello magazine [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] okay right the music’s too loud the neighbors have been complaining Ben elton’s first TV success came aged 23 as the co-creator of the young ones the sitcom with Rick M and Adrien Edmonson who played flatmates in a squalled student flat ship pigs right a cynical and absurd take which became a reoccurring theme there’s been a big debate about whether you should have sort of trigger warnings on certain shows for people I just wondered how you felt about that you know some people say it’s horribly Millennial and kind of oversensitive and other people say no it’s just compassionate just I think we have to be careful about an over Sensitivity I mean you know it’s self-evident people that people don’t have a right not to be offended they have a right not to be the victims of hate crime but there’s a you know there’s a there’s a long space between those two things and we must be careful to keep that distance you know being offended is not a hate crime it’s just somebody either being rude or merely being somebody you don’t understand I mean I’ve often been thought of to have given offense and discovered that what that I had no idea that that was how it was being being taken and often people haven’t really been listening so I think um on the whole whilst I applaud a new sensitivity we must maintain a sense of proportion and although I’m not going to become a sort of gibbering culture right-wing cultural Warrior about it I do think you know that the the the idea that you put a trigger warning on on a hamlet or or a stand-up comedian you know they might be bad language but on the whole I think we should credit people with more intelligence more sensitivity and also allow them to discover mistakes if you never hear anything that you object to if you never see anything that that challenges you then then you’re unlikely to grow as a person on on your point about being compassionate in in some ways I’ve read a quote as a self-confessed Ley that you actually admired Margaret thater in some ways and I nearly fell off my chair is that true I admired the fact that she was honest about her beliefs and she stuck to them I always say the same thing I personally disagreed with almost everything she ever said or did and I feel she was an immensely destructive force in British Society but I admired the fact that unlike the current crop of politicians and I speak to the left as well on this nobody seems to stick to their principles anymore power seems to be an end ra you know rather than a means it should be the means towards improving the quality of people’s lives not assuaging the egos whoever happens to be sitting on the throne at that [Applause] time and last year unashamedly in double denim Elton made his West End acting debut starring in We Will Rock You the musical he co-wrote with queen was it exposing to take him to the stage or did it just feel like a sort of natural vocation for you oh look it was a bit of fun I loved it there’s a part for an old gizer an old rock and roll Guru and it was Brian May who said you know we’ve seen your audition we’ve seen you rehearse this with other actors so often and you know he said you always you’re always the funniest atct why don’t you ever go so I auditioned for the director and gave myself the role uh and it was great fun Ben it’s lovely to talk to you thank you very much my pleasure thank you

The comedian Ben Elton says he’s spent his 45-year career “exploring the outer limits of human idiocy.”

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Best known for his work on Blackadder and the Young Ones, as well as writing musicals and novels, will tour this summer with a new standup show he’s called ‘Authentic Stupidity’.

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