John Bishop declares ‘I don’t avoid anything’ in comedy as he takes stance on joke censorship
Comedian John Bishop has issued a definitive rebuke of comedy censorship as he prepares for his new stand-up tour.
The 58-year-old funnyman has spoken out after deciding to quit his ITV chat show.
Amid continued cancel culture rows and classic TV sitcoms being slapped with trigger warnings, Bishop has explained his stance on the limits of acceptability in comedy.
“I don’t avoid anything when I’m writing jokes,” he explained to the Daily Star.
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The stand-up blasted those without “a sense of humour” who would inevitably “get offended by something”.
“If you’ve got a sense of humour, you’ll be able to see the funny side,” Bishop observed.
However, he cautioned against “punching down” in having absolutely no limits to poking fun.
“The big thing for me is not punching down. It’s about not picking on someone and bullying someone,” the 58-year-old assured.
“If you say something and the people you’re talking about can laugh about it, then it’s a joke.
“But if you say something and they can’t laugh about it, it’s bullying. That’s the difference,” Bishop detailed.
The comic has been reflecting more deeply on his jokes as he plans for his next stand-up tour to mark 25 years in comedy.
“I don’t know what the material will be on. I’ve just booked the dates. I haven’t written it yet,” he admitted.
The UK tour is set to begin in October later this year with some locations already fully booked.
“I’ll start pulling it together six months before” Bishop assured.
He also planned to immerse himself in the comedy club scene and “work on it that way. It will build and evolve.”
Bishop has also recently been in the news after finally ruling out a return of his talk show, which was last broadcast in February 2023.
Explaining his move, he told the Star that the talk show space was too “congested”.
“Graham Norton is brilliant at it and Jonathan Ross is brilliant at it. We really don’t need another chat show,” he added.
However, the Liverpudlian comedian also felt he wasn’t able to “the depth of interviews” he liked to do on his podcast The Bishop Exchange.
“With television, you’ve got to fit into schedules. But with the podcast, I can do it whenever I want to do it,” Bishop declared.