Producers, commissioners and creators weigh in on whether modern comedy TV is erring on the side of caution, after claims from high-profile figures such as Jennifer Aniston and John Cleese that overly sensitive audiences are stifling comic creativity.

Jennifer Aniston made headlines in late March after commenting that “you have to be very careful with comedy” nowadays for fear of landing in hot water with audiences.

The Morning Show and Friends star told the Associated Foreign Press that “there’s a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of Friends and find them offensive.”

She added: “There were things that were never intentional and others… well, we should have thought it through – but I don’t think there was a sensitivity like there is now.”

Of course, Aniston is not the only high-profile industry figure to publicly give their take on the state of comedy. Fawlty Towers co-creator and star John Cleese last year argued that so-called ‘cancel culture’ has had a “disastrous effect” on comedy.

“You can do the creation and then criticise it, but you can’t do them at the same time. If you’re worried about offending people and constantly thinking of that, you are not going to be very creative. So I think it has a disastrous effect,” he said at the FreedomFest conference in Las Vegas.

Many comedians today second-guess their ideas and material over concerns they will ruffle the feathers of overly sensitive audiences, said the British comedy legend, calling it “the death of creativity.”

C21 spoke with several comedy-focused producers, commissioners and creators to get their take on whether this perceived threat of causing offence is changing how comedy is created and the decision-making processes at the networks developing and greenlighting the shows.

Andrew Barnsley, an executive producer on series including Schitt’s Creek and the rebooted version of sketch comedy classic The Kids in the Hall, says comedy has certainly changed in recent years, but that doesn’t mean those who write it need to pre-empt how audiences may respond.

“It’s easy to get confused between being careful with comedy versus being responsible and authentic,” says Barnsley, who is CEO of Toronto-based prodco Project 10 Productions, as well as president of Toronto Film School.

“Producers, creators, buyers… we have these conversations all the time: are the voices being represented on the screen represented in the writers room and on the creative side? If you can back up what’s being said with authenticity and you are being responsible, I think you can still cover all the territory you were able to cover previously.”

There are, of course, several new layers to how comedy television is created. In the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, TV comedy, especially in the US, was written in big writers rooms, with jokes written by committee, and representation was not a major priority.

“Some shows have just not aged well, and a big part of that is because there wasn’t the representation in the writers room that there was on screen,” says Barnsley, who adds that he recently rewatched the 2001 US romcom Legally Blonde with his 13-year-old daughter and found himself cringing at times.

But while humour that is funny today can quickly become outdated, Barnsley says that does not mean comedy writers should consider their work in terms of how it will be viewed in future years or by future generations.

“There are shows that survive the test of time and others that don’t – they are cultural artifacts to a certain degree,” he says. “But to run something through a kind of protectionist filter of how it will be received 10, 20 or 100 years from now gets in the way of the art and creative.”

Prime Video’s revival of The Kids in the Hall, which returned in 2022 after initially airing for five seasons from 1989 to 1995, provided an interesting case study in how classic comedy can be rebooted for modern audiences. The show is led by the Toronto-based comedy troupe of the same name, which rose to prominence more than 30 years ago with their irreverent brand of humour.

“Their whole mission was to push envelopes, and basically they really needed to figure out which envelopes they were pushing in the reboot,” says Barnsley, who adds that there was a lot of conversation with the studio, buyers and producers to “get a sense of what would work, at the same time as staying true to the Kids in the Hall sensibility.”

He notes: “The troupe had conversations they wouldn’t have had 30 years ago when they were making the show. But they also understood that times have changed and that they needed to find a way for their essence to come across in a 2020s kind of way.”

France Télévisions’ VP of scripted streaming programming Sened Dhab, who oversees the public broadcaster’s young-adult commissioning slate, which includes titles such as Sisters and Skam France, dismisses the notion that comedy needs to be more careful in 2023.

“It’s simply about being more in tune with our times and our audiences. I work with a lot of younger talent, and that’s the message coming directly from them,” says Dhab. “The situations where I find myself having to explain what the audience will and won’t find OK is more often with older creators than younger.”

Dhab insists that comedy television has improved over the past decade as it has evolved to become more reflective of the audience.

“The whole point of investing that much money in the vision of the creator is for it to resonate with an audience. If we are insulting the audience, or lacking empathy, we aren’t doing our jobs as creators and broadcasters.”

Dhab believes the role of the comedy-focused network executive has changed as societal attitudes have evolved. “Yes, our role as commissioners has changed as much as our audiences have changed,” he says. “Comedy is a very personal endeavour on the talent’s part, and our role [as commissioners] is to ensure the discourse and the stories will resonate with our audiences.”

He also pushes back on the notion that comedy tastes have fundamentally evolved when it comes to comedy. “I don’t think anything has changed. I think racist or sexist jokes were as shitty 20 years ago as they are now. It’s just that now people stand up to them and before they didn’t.”

Greig Dymond, director of development at CBC Comedy, says that, if anything, the evolution of comedy has widened the aperture and given creators more comedic latitude with which to work.

“When we’re considering projects to put into development, we’re not shying away from provocative stories. And thematically, comedy is more exciting than ever,” he says.

The Canadian pubcaster has enjoyed a sustained period of comedy success, with series such as Schitt’s Creek, Kim’s Convenience, Workin’ Moms, Baroness Von Sketch Show, Son of a Critch and Sort Of garnering strong critical acclaim and impressive global sales.

“No one wants to kill the comedy or shy away from what’s going on in the world. I wouldn’t call Workin’ Moms or Baroness Von Sketch Show safe in any way, and Sort Of is groundbreaking,” says Dymond.

He also isn’t convinced by the argument that the younger generation is looking to ‘cancel’ comedians from a different era. He references recent comments from UK television personality Graham Norton to illustrate his point. “The old guard, like John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson, think this has to do with some form of censorship, but I remember that Graham Norton quote from a few months ago – ‘cancel culture’ isn’t really the right phrase; it’s accountability.”

Rob Michaels, an Iraqi-Canadian comedian, creator and TV writer whose credits include family sitcom Children Ruin Everything and Roast Battle Canada, argues against the idea that progressive comedic voices are being stifled.

“I don’t think it’s about TV becoming too safe; a smart correction is being made,” he says. “The low-hanging fruit of offensive stuff has been overdone – we’ve heard it all before – and it has, if anything, pushed creators to now come up with better comedy and not go for the most obvious jokes that punch down.”

Michaels says he observed a shift beginning to take place in comedy in 2016 or 2017, with more nuanced humour and storytelling starting to come to the fore as writers rooms began introducing creatives from more diverse backgrounds.

“Around the time of the #MeToo movement, people were asking why everybody was OK with these problematic people in power. That’s around when the networks started to step up, and audiences started to be conscious of the fact that we deserve better humour than this,” he says.

Today, Michaels argues that makers of comedy television are more sophisticated than ever, as they have to create innovative, clever humour without resorting to making jokes at the expense of others. “It’s pushing comedy to be smarter, and giving it more longevity,” he says.

Despite the progress made in comedy over the past decade, Project 10’s Barnsley stresses that the TV industry must continue to nurture its brightest and most daring voices. If not, those emerging voices, especially earlier in their careers, could turn away from the TV industry altogether.

“It’s so easy for people to quit, or to lose confidence, particularly when they’re putting themselves out there in such vulnerable ways,” he says. “There’s a real responsibility to caring for that and making sure there’s a safe environment where those voices can grow and realise their potential.”

Producers, commissioners and creators weigh in on whether modern comedy TV is erring on the side of caution, after claims from high-profile figures such as Jennifer Aniston and John Cleese that overly sensitive audiences are stifling comic creativity.

Jennifer Aniston made headlines in late March after commenting that “you have to be very careful with comedy” nowadays for fear of landing in hot water with audiences.

The Morning Show and Friends star told the Associated Foreign Press that “there’s a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of Friends and find them offensive.”

She added: “There were things that were never intentional and others… well, we should have thought it through – but I don’t think there was a sensitivity like there is now.”
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