Louis Theroux

Yeah, I was born 1970.

So we grew up sort of at the tail end of... Well, black and white minstrels was a thing, right, on TV.

And there were comedians like Bernard Manning and Jim Davidson and others whose comedy was...

I guess would now be considered offensive and would make liberal use of stereotypes.

Yeah.

And then alternative comedy came along, people like Ben Elton and The Young Ones and Rick Mayall.

And they said, actually, you know what?

Comedy should think more carefully about social justice.

So in a way, I guess that always became part of my thinking was like, oh, you can make someone laugh and it can still be a bad thing because it's bullying, let's say.

But it sounds like you're disagreeing with that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm aware that there's things that I might joke about among friends or privately... That you wouldn't say publicly.

Would there ever be a joke you think, that will get a laugh, but I'm not going to do it?

Really?

Surrealist.

Because Ben Elton... Ben's still touring.

Yeah, Ben's... No, he sort of came back.

He lives in Australia.

We've had Ben on the pod.