Cancelled Graham Linehan Says Comedy Should Always Question the ‘Prevailing Narrative’

Graham Linehan, who co-wrote ‘Father Ted,’ but has been cancelled for his views on trans rights, says comedy should question prevailing narrative.

Graham Linehan being interviewed by Lee Hall for NTD's "British Thought Leaders" on Oct. 24, 2023. NTD

Comedy should always question the “prevailing narrative,” says Graham Linehan, who has been ostracised from the comedy scene in recent years for his outspoken criticism of transgender ideology, which he sees as encroaching on women’s, children’s, and gay rights.

Speaking to NTD’s Lee Hall for the “British Thought Leaders” programme, Mr. Linehan said of comedy: “It should always question whatever the prevailing narrative happens to be, even if the prevailing narrative is positive. It should be providing a an ironic counterpoint to all of that. Because nothing created by humans is so perfect that it can’t be made fun of.”

He described the current climate, where comedians whose material is politically incorrect are cancelled, as a “very dangerous time.”

Mr. Linehan said: “It appears to be the the middle classes have decided that it’s not permissible to make fun of certain areas or to show the flaws in their thinking.”

In August, a venue cancelled the Edinburgh Festival show Comedy Unleashed after learning Mr. Linehan would be the making a special guest appearance.

The Leith Arches said Mr. Linehan’s presence did not “align” with their “values.”

'Father Ted' co-creator Graham Linehan during a Let Women Speak rally in Belfast on April 16, 2023. PA

The 55-year-old Irishman, who wrote “The IT Crowd” and “Black Books” sitcoms as well as “Father Ted,” has recently written a book called “Tough Crowd: How I Made And Lost A Career In Comedy.”

Mr. Linehan praised IT Crowd star Richard Ayoade and chat show host Jonathan Ross for their “bravery” in giving the book good reviews, despite heavy criticism online.

He said he did not believe his views were “controversial” and he pointed to the case of transgender paedophile Andrew Miller, who was jailed for 20 years in Scotland last month for abducting and sexually abusing a young girl. Miller self-identifies as a woman and uses the name Amy George.

Mr. Linehan said that under the Scottish government’s self-identification proposals, people like Miller would be able to, “go into a space with my daughter, my friend’s daughters, wives, without being challenged, and if my daughter or a woman was to challenge one of these men, they would get into trouble. So someone like Andrew Miller gets treated like he’s part of a sacred class, right up until the moment that he abducts and tortures a little girl.”

He said the trans lobby was now worryingly powerful and was intimidating those, like J. K. Rowling, who did not share its views.

Trans Lobby Intimidation ‘Like Something From Mao’s China’

Mr. Linehan said: “There was lists of feminists handed around in the art world ... like lists of so called TERFs which stands for trans, exclusionary radical feminist. And that’s like something from Mao’s China. It’s an extraordinary level of intolerance and surveillance, you know, it’s completely anti-human ... and it’s all based on a load of nonsense from American academia.”

He said the trans rights groups used methods similar to the Scientologists to attack their targets.

Mr. Linehan said: “There’s a famous quote from Jimmy Carter, he said ‘The joke that will destroy my life is already out there.’ Which means that if you look through someone’s Twitter, or through their stand-up act, the reams of material that’s placed online, what you’re actually also doing is you’re giving your enemies the means with which they can eventually destroy you.”

But he said his enemies tried mining his history to try and find something he had said which was misogynistic.

Mr. Linehan said: “The funny thing about me is I was such a good little lefty, that they couldn’t find anything. So they have to make stuff up. So they’ve done things like for instance, they fake screenshots of me admitting to sending women photographs of my penis.”

He said, “Trans activists use the various techniques of control employed by cults like Scientologists to to maintain a general control over the discussion.”

‘Tide of Public Opinion Turning’

But he believes the tide of public opinion on the transgender issue may be slowly turning.

Mr. Linehan told Lee Hall: “We’ve been waiting for years now for the court cases to start coming in, of transitioners who will be suing their doctors. So we knew it was only a matter of time and the first first significant ones have started in the States.”

He praised Ritchie Herron, who is suing the NHS for removing his genitals without fully considering his mental state, and Keira Bell—who as a teen transitioned to male but came to regret it—for being “very brave in exposing what’s going on.”

Mr. Linehan said, “I think the tide is turning, but it’s more like a battleship turning, you know, a very slow process, but we'll get there.”

He said “Father Ted,” which ran from 1995 to 1998, was written at a time when the Roman Catholic Church in the Republic of Ireland was “still a kind of a significant force.”

Mr. Linehan said religion seemed to have lost its lost its grip on society, both in the UK and in Ireland, and there would therefore be no point in writing a sitcom about the church in 2023.

He said: “Writing a satire about religion would be a waste of time, I think at the moment. I'd rather write satire about the various new religions that have popped up in the place of Catholicism and the Church of England, these insane, liberal groupings, and that would be worth puncturing, at the moment.”