Comedian and Have I Got News For You regular Reginald D Hunter has faced reams of negative headlines this week after doing a high-profile stand-up routine in which he used a racist epithet – not once, but repeatedly.
Hunter was performing at the annual Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) Footballer of the Year event and his 10-minute performance involved using the “N-word”, plus making jokes about women, Ireland and Jews. His comedy is, and always has been, in a risqué mold and delivered in a matter-of-fact, blunt style – but it was reported on Wednesday that the PFA are now demanding the return of his five-figure fee.
The Telegraph wrote a piece arguing that the “fuss over Hunter’s gags shows how borderline psychotic the culture of political correctness has become”. But as the paper went on to say, Hunter has been accused of damaging the anti-racism campaign in football, and one Guardian writer even went as far as to say that Hunter has made it that bit more difficult to “kick racism out of football” – on the basis that racist fans may defend their usage of the “N-word” because “Hunter said it”.
Hunter stayed quiet on the topic for a few days, which allowed some media, and plenty of those connected with the PFA, to voice their thoughts – negative or otherwise. Finally, the comedian broke the silence via his Facebook page and said that he hadn’t actually been asked, as yet, to pay back his fee. But he did go on to justify his act, and explain that he felt his comments were not in any way racist.
Earlier in the week, PFA chairman Clarke Carlisle said: “I am embarrassed. I apologise unreservedly and it won’t happen again on my watch. I thought that we made a really gross error of judgement in who we selected for our entertainment last night … his set was inappropriate, it really was.”
There may well be a lesson to be learned on the fine line between comedy and insult – or even whether political correctness has gone too far. But as Hunter himself has said, it wouldn’t have taken much background research by the PFA to find out the nature of his comedy routines.