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Laughter in the dark as Chris Morris puts the jokes in jihad
Satirist Chris Morris is about to embark on his first feature film, but is terrorism really a laughing matter? Sarah Freeman reports.
If you ever wanted to find the boundary of taste and decency, don't ask Chris Morris for directions.
It's been some years since the Brass Eye satirist convinced celebrities to join a campaign against a fictitious drug Cake and then persuaded another gullible lot so desperate to get their faces on television they were prepared to wear Nonce Sense T-shirts protesting against paedophiles. But if Morris needed a fix of controversy, unveiling plans to make a film on Islamic terrorism should probably do it.
While filming isn't due to begin until the spring, having spent the past two years researching material, including visits to Leeds and Bradford, Morris has claimed he hopes the project will do for Islamic terrorism what Dad's Army did for the Nazis by showing them as "scary and ridiculous".
Given his past history, it seems likely that the final collection of characters will pose more uncomfortable questions than Captain Mainwaring and Private Pike ever did .Early drafts for the script apparently show young jihadists getting thrown out of training camps for smoking and rowing over the washing up when back in England . But Morris, who had the idea for the film after reading details of the police raids on terrorist suspects under Operation Crevice in 2004, insists there is a joke to be made.
"I don't have plans for this film to be offensive, but I do want it to be very funny," he said, as details of the movie became clear. "I accept though that some may find poking fun at terrorists offensive.
"There is this Dad's Army side of terrorism and that's what this film is exploring. Hopefully it will get over that terrorists do what we all do. They discuss the mundane and plan things that sometimes go wrong. People, that is the viewers, are longing to laugh at terrorism."
Channel 4 and Sheffield-based Warp Films, who are providing part of the film's 4m funding, are no doubt hoping he is right, but Morris, who barely has to lift a finger to court controversy, has a history of tapping into what makes headline grabbing television, a talent he's unlikely to lose moving to the big screen.
"I think most people are now of the opinion that racist, sexist or homophobic jokes are off limits," says stand-up comic and writer Steve Bustin. "However, if a comedian is experienced and skilled enough then I think it is possible to make fun of many social taboos.
"There is a fine line when the audience sucks its teeth in between them laughing and walking out, but certainly Chris Morris, like Stewart Lee and Mark Thomas, has proved in the past that serious issues can provide comic material.
"In many ways, pushing boundaries is what the very best comedy is all about and sharp, incisive writing can burst the bubbles of pomposity.
"Comedy allows you to say things you simply couldn't say in any other medium and with that comes the ability to break down barriers.
"Just look at the success of something like the television series Goodness Gracious Me, which, for the first time on mainstream television, saw the Asian community poking fun at themselves. It was great, partly because it opened up comedy to a whole group of people who had perhaps previously thought it wasn't a route which was open
to them.
"The only proviso to all that is that when it comes to something like terror, it would only be a stupid man who would consider making fun of the victims.
"If it's just a joke for the sake of a cheap laugh then it's bound to fail."
The finishing touches are currently being put to the script. But while the film seems destined to be branded "the sickest ever" and calls for it to be banned are almost certain, Morris, who once said: "If you make a joke in an area which is for some reason, normally out of bounds, then you might find something, you might put your finger on something", won't be losing any sleep.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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