Comedians You Should Know: Frankie Boyle

November 19, 2010 Features 1

Yes, he’s Scottish and yes, his last name is Boyle. But he’s not related to Susan Boyle. And he may look like one of The Proclaimers, but he’s not that, either. In fact, he’s about as far from either as you can get. Frankie Boyle has made a name for himself as the foul-mouthed, I-can’t-believe-he-just-said-that! star of the BBC2 panel game “Mock the Week”. His stock in trade are the jokes that no one else will dare say. Nothing is off limits to him or too out of bounds. He has often shocked even “Mock the Week” regulars with his willingness to crack wise about Princess Diana, Michael Jackson and the handicapped in the most unwholesome ways.

Frankie Boyle has a lot of detractors out there who say he’s a misogynist, homophobe racist or just a nasty person. I can see where they’re coming from, but I honestly believe he’s not misogynistic, homophobic or racist, he just lacks the social filters most decent members of society use. Or he may have social filters and just not use them. I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether that makes him a nasty person or not.

And if, for some reason, the preceding two paragraphs aren’t enough to convince you, here’s your weekly warning. If you are easily offended, have a heart condition, nervous disposition or are afraid of laughing at something that the person sitting next to you might find offensive and look down on you for, then you’d just better go ahead and skip this week. Oh, and he swears like a drunken sailor with Tourette Syndrome. You have been warned.

Frankie Boyle doesn't LOOK mean and nasty, does he? From Guardian.co.uk, photo credit: Rex Features

Here’s a fair example of Boyle’s stand-up. The first bit is about Shannon Matthews’ kidnapping. Notice the crowd’s reactions.

Here’s a clip from “Mock the Week” where Boyle, Dara Ó Briain and Russell Howard discuss the then impending switching on of the Large Hadron Collider which, at the time, some people believed would cause a black hole that would swallow up the universe. They’ve strategically rearranged the studio so Russell gets sucked in first:

And here, Frankie takes the moral high ground for once. It doesn’t last long, though. And he gets in a couple of doozies along the way. Hard to believe this was on BBC2!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wk1tDXwYzk

This next clip is Frankie Boyle on “the war on terror”. Once again, he manages to stun everyone on stage – especially poor Michael McIntyre:

This will give you a good idea of how things go on “Mock the Week” if you’ve never seen it before. After the bit about the “racist door” things just sort of go all over, but watch the whole thing because it gives you a good idea of Boyle’s contributions to the show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy6lZ_3Awos

After several instances of censorship of his jokes by the BBC, Frankie finally threw in the towel and quit “Mock the Week” to concentrate on his stand-up. His current show “I Would Happily Punch Every One of You In the Face” is playing to sold out audiences, even with that title. This is his set from “Live at the Apollo” before his current tour. Since it’s on the BBC, it’s a bit tamer than his concerts, but he still manages to drop a few F-bombs and stuff.

If you find you really like Frankie Boyle from what’s available on YouTube, Amazon has “Frankie Boyle Live” available for download in MP3 format. His autobiography “My Shit Life So Far” is available in hardcover, paperback and Kindle editions. I must say I’m pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, none of his DVDs are available in Region 1, so we’ll just have to watch what we can on YouTube.

Some additional links: