The folk scene has contributed to the stand up industry, and we all laugh and have laughed at their material. Comics who started in folk were perhaps the first mainstream stand ups who could spend a night without a single ending punchline. We might call that social observation, which means laughing at the differences in society.

I laugh at anybody who is different to me, especially if it points out a large difference.

That makes me... a human.

Laughter can be for many reasons, some spontaneous. But planned laughter is through hearing a joke. Jokes are always at the expense if others. Always have been and always will be. A joke about a dog is all the funnier for giving it human traits.

And jokes about people who live differently to you? Well, it's a hell of a lot better than making snide comments about them. If Darowyn found a funny angle about the "freaks" who wear the same clothes, drink the same lager, smash shop windows etc, I might laugh, but as his comments seem to show contempt, I find this worse, much worse than taking the piss. Especially the metal leap that drinking anything other than fusty bilge water made in a shed makes you break shop windows (!)

I take the piss out of folk clubs and the sorts of people who go to folk clubs. I have people laughing their heads off on a good night. Where do I deliver this? In folk clubs mainly....