Offence hasn’t really moved from one wing to another. Offence on the right was dominant because that is the dominant voice in mainstream media, but social media means that more voices can be heard and younger people without newspaper columns have used social media as their platform.

When the comedian Jimmy Carr joked about wounded soldiers, the right wing press were outraged that he should dare to do such a thing. He should be cancelled.

When he joked about the traveling community they were outraged that he might be “cancelled”. No wonder the press can seem so grotesque looking when it has so much cake that it is constantly having and eating.

There is a group of comedians who have made a good and high profile living out of skirting around the edges of offence, offensive enough to make their audience feel naughty for laughing, but not so offensive the audience don’t keep coming back. Much of their “offensive material” is punching down, not up. It is about finding the correct minority groups to mock, many of the regular targets of the 1970s comedians would not be considered acceptable targets of abuse in 2022.

The shock comic must be careful to balance their level of shock to the point that it doesn’t offend the market.

The people I would feel okay to mock and the style of mockery has changed in the 30 years I have been in comedy, affected by experience, age and hopefully the development of empathy. Now, try to avoid mockery and anger, after spending many years using it.

If you want to offend, one of the questions is “who do you want to offend and why?”

Do you want to offend the powerful?

Would you prefer to offend the marginalised?

Is your offence equally spread or is it focused?

This conversation coincided with the it being the day that Ricky Gervais’s new special began streaming.

Good news for Netflix shareholders, not so good for trans men and women.

I have known Ricky f