Paul Whitehouse has addressed the ongoing debates around what is acceptable in comedy nowadays, saying that he believed we had gone ‘a bit too far’.
The Welsh actor, writer and comedian is best known as one of the stars of the BBC sketch series The Fast Show which ran from 1994 until 1997.
Now the veteran performer has spoken about the state of comedy in light news of the Fawlty Towers reboot.
‘Things that you could say last year, you have to revaluate now, and you have to tread very carefully,’ he said.
‘And I think there’s a kind of zeal about it, of addressing perhaps issues that have gone unaddressed in the past.
‘And so, we go a bit too far and I’d like to think we’ll come back a bit.’
Making the comments while appearing on The Andrew Marr Show this week, Paul, 64, said comedy had probably ‘gone too far’.
‘As we all know, there have been so many injustices in society that need to be addressed,’ he said.
‘And as I say, we’ve probably gone too far in our attempt to suppress those.
‘And hopefully, we can come back.’
He added that he now questioned whether doing accents were needed.
‘If I interact with my kids, and I do an accent, even these days, they might look askance at me,’ he explained.
‘And, you know, Bob and I discuss that with Gone Fishing with what accents are we allowed to do?
‘I think the kind of line that we’ve come to is not of the oppressed.’
Since 2018 Paul has starred alongside comedian Bob Mortimer, 63, in Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing.
Specifically addressing the return of Fawlty Towers, Paul joked that his advice would be for star John Cleese, 83, to ‘don’t do it’ and ‘get someone younger in’.
‘You think I’m going to give Cleese advice? Don’t do it, John! Get someone younger in,’ he joked.
Earlier this month John confirmed he was currently writing a script for a potential new series of the treasured sitcom with his daughter Camilla Cleese.
The revival is set to follow Basil Fawlty discovering he has a secret daughter and grappling with the modern ever-changing world.
However, the Monty Python star said he wanted to make sure it wouldn’t be an ‘anti-woke nightmare’.
The news of the reboot sparked mixed reactions, with some saying it should be left in the past while some loyal fans believed it might not measure up to the original.
The Andrew Marr Show airs from Mondays to Thursdays at 6pm on LBC.
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