Irish comedian Katherine Lynch says she believes the kind of comedy that made her famous is now “cancelled”.
She said she can reinvent herself and move on, but she doesn't believe the TV shows she made 15 years ago would be made today.
It was among the topics discussed during this week’s Thursday Interview on The Hard Shoulder.
Kieran asked Katherine about the origins of her television comedy career, including the creation of her first television series Katherine Lynch's Working Girls.
She recalled: “I had a residency in GUBU [Bar], now PantiBar… where I honed all the characters like Singin’ Bernie Walsh, Liz Hurley and Sheila Shiek. The cabaret was called Busty’s G-Spot.
“That went on for five years, and while I was there Marion Cullen and the beautiful, well-missed Shay Healy came in. They saw potential… in the Singin’ Bernie character. They were presenting a talking heads show, and they put Bernie in it. RTÉ loved it, and they asked if I’d do a pilot.
“I did the pilot - the pilot was thrown in the bin. I went in, literally took it out of the bin, and said ‘you’re doing this - you need a female comedian’. And the rest is history.”
Katherine had ten successful years fronting RTÉ shows, but she doesn’t believe she’d have a similar opportunity now.
She observed: “I think my kind of comedy is cancelled, if the truth be known. But I can reinvent myself - I’m still funny.
“No more than the Little Britain people, you have to take it on the nose and say society has moved on… you move on with it.”
However, Katherine does believe the debates around so-called ‘cancel culture’ have become damaging to society.
She argued: "There’s no room for common sense.
“The central question is now whether we can hold one another accountable, but about we can now forgive and move forward.
"Cancel culture is a rabbit hole and a rut… it’s a stifling of society’s common sense. We have to actually just find a way to see small things that don’t deserve to be cancelled and forgive them and move on.
“I’m not talking about Harvey Weinstein here - I’m talking about small things people get cancelled for… it’s not fair.”
Katherine believes society now needs to become more sensible when it comes to forgiving small indiscretions and mistakes - saying “everybody deserves a chance”.
The comedian is no stranger to having some of her own characters criticised in the past, including her Traveller character Singin’ Bernie.
She said: “You know who came to my rescue? The Travelling community. They put me on the front of the Travellers’ Voice… I’ve gone and done talks with Traveller women.
“Sheila Sheik is the one that I think would get me in trouble [today] - but she also doesn’t care.”
