Mike Ward: Freedom of Speech Isn't Free

Just because something has the right to be heard, doesn't mean it's necessarily worth hearing. That notion holds particular relevance to Mike Ward, the Canadian comic who's being sued by for £25,000 by his own government for telling a joke about a disabled child. 

The whole debacle has turned him into something of a poster-boy-of-the-moment for free speech in comedy, and the surrounding context isn't exactly damning. He made fun of Jeremy Gabriel (his original comments were neither offensive nor funny), was brought before the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal, and now he's turned the experience into a show that portends to explore freedom of expression on a wider scale.

The "liberation of the hushed" is an idea that sells, but it does raise questions as to whether attempts to suppress a message really add any inherent creative value to it. "Free speech" is a clever angle to take, adding a frisson to material that in reality is only offensive on the most perfunctory of levels. His show is meta in the loosest sense of the word; sometimes he's talking about the time he told an offensive joke, the next minute he's told you it before you get the chance to realise.

Amidst all the political baggage there's some very funny material, but the jokes would be funnier if they weren't packaged and padded out with such PR-hungry fuss. People like to champion the "right to offend" when it suits them, but don't let the smokescreen avert your gaze. Ward's a good comedian but an even better salesman.