Belgian comedy gets the Finger

Belgium’s creative comedy Taboo

Comedies with a social impact were celebrated at the first-ever Finger Awards ceremony at C21’s Content London event last week.

Belgian TV series Taboo took home the award for most creative comedy. The series sees comedian Philippe Geubels invite four guests with a range of disabilities for a week’s holiday in preparation for a stand-up performance.

The series has been nominated for an International Emmy Award for best non-scripted entertainment and has been commissioned by Network 10 in Australia, Bell Media in Canada, SFR in Switzerland and TV3 in Spain.

The Finger Award for most effective comedy was given to The Tampon Book campaign. Germany-based group The Female Company created a campaign to surpass the ‘luxury tax’ imposed on female hygiene products such as tampons by hiding them and selling them in books.

German comedian Jan Böhmermann received a special mention for his project Do They Know It’s Europe, which saw 20 satirists from 16 European countries join forces to create a new European anthem.

The Finger Awards were created by the international Comedy for Change collective of industry professionals who aim to make the world a better place through comedy.

Omri Marcus, director of the Finger Awards said: “It was George Orwell that once said that every joke is a tiny revolution. We have ambitions for these awards to make it clear that the unique power of comedy to shake perceptions, raise awareness, ridicule social injustice and sometimes even literally change legislation is in our hands. Our international community is all about joining forces to educate and collaborate so the joke won’t be on us.”