The Cast of "Casualty" doing an Abba Medley

The BBC charity telethon is here again, reminding me of Alexei Sayle’s comment that Comic Relief was established by the people of the Third World to aid the struggling comedians of the UK. While in no way disputing the fine intentions of the campaign, or denying the need for such aid, I find it difficult to become moved by Comic Relief as a charitable event. It presents too much of a queasy mix of self-conscious irony (the reflex of the comedic personalities involved) and leaden earnestness (the very serious and real necessity for such campaigns), resulting in a smugness that becomes gradually unbearable.

The problem lies in Comic Relief’s central faith in the idea of comedy as progressive force, embodied in the feeble play on words of the title. The power of comedy to effect any kind of social or cultural change is much vaunted, but rarely demonstrated. British news media seems to have never heard of Chris Morris; The Simpsons, frequently cooed over for its ‘subversive’ content, was in fact always fairly safe, even more so now that its slide into self-indulgence and retreads of itself is now fully established (as Homer might say, "Mmm… law of diminishing returns"). South Park showed what subversive content really was, although its recent lurch towards the political right has made it somewhat resistant to the progressive politics usually associated with comedy (although in a way, this is taking comedic subversion to a new level). So Comic Relief’s faith in the power of laughter to heal the world seems, ironically, somewhat po-faced. It doesn’t help that the comedy routines are often somewhat self-satisfied in their references to "what we’re all here for tonight." A good example happened a few years ago when Comic Relief night featured an ‘episode’ of Only Fools And Horses, the first to appear since the series’ conclusion in 1996 (but before the ill-advised return to the series a few years later – only fools flog dead horses). The episode ran as normal until the final few minutes, when David Jason turned to camera and said that they didn’t know how to end the sketch, but then again it didn’t really matter because the real point was the charity. But this just struck me as poor writing. Did the charitable subtext need to be pointed out so clumsily? Did it need to be pointed out at all? Did the performers need to make it so clear that they were doing this for a good cause? Other fundraisers such as Band Aid were largely free of this kind of self-satisfaction because, in terms of the event, the appeal was almost incidental. People paid to see a rock show, and that money just happened to be used for a particular charity. Somehow, Comic Relief never seems content to let itself simply be a comedy show that uses its material to raise money.

It sounds as if I’m complaining that my thoughtless enjoyment of funnies is being compromised by boring old reminders of material want and the need for change. But compare Comic Relief with the BBC’s other charity, Children in Need, an equally valid cause but without the same sense of self-satisfaction. This is partially because the appeal isn’t inherently tied to a certain sector of the entertainment industry, so it doesn’t (on the whole) seem to act as a promotional opportunity or as the Comedians’ Union Showboat Bonanza. It’s also refreshingly free of the kind of "I’m cool and funny in real life, but tonight I’m letting my aloofness drop for the common good" self-satisfaction. It’s also striking that while Children in Need doesn’t have any kind of visual prize for donation, Comic Relief depends on the Red Nose as both fundraiser and promotional device. It’s all right if you’re not a professional comedian, you can at least have the temporary semblance of one. Just leave the actual jokes to the professionals – in the right hands they can save lives.

The charity telethon as a genre, however, is facing new challenges. Whereas shows like Children in Need used to give people the chance to see celebrities in different and usually embarrassing contexts, that kind of programming appears every night. The idea behind a twenty minute section on Children in Need ten years ago now gets hosted by Ant’n’Dec and shown sixty weeks a year on ITV2. You’re never further than eight hours away from the cast of Casualty doing an Abba medley. Resultantly, the charity shows are resorting to singers promoting their new album, or trailers for the current West End shows, which in turn gives rise to a new kind of self-promotion. Whether this is better than the old kind of self-promotion, we’ll have to see. Nevertheless, I’ll no doubt be hurling coins into a bucket on Friday, and it would be nice if you’d join me (ah, it does feel quite good after all).