‘Thank you very much, that’s a lovely compliment,’ says comedian Rosie Jones – not to Metro, but to anyone who scoffs and says her comedy is ‘too woke’.
Since earlier this year, Jones, 35, has recieved significant online backlash for calling on ‘privileged, cis, white, straight men, such as Ricky Gervais and Jimmy Carr, to ‘with respect, shut the f**k up’.
The LGBTQ+ comedian’s comment came after Carr praised transphobic Father Ted creator, Graham Linehan, as part of his Laughs Funny tour, and Gervais defended ‘tabboo’ comedy following his Netflix special SuperNature.
‘When you look into it, woke means that you are awake to the world. You are awake to other people’s feelings and other people’s diversity,’ Jones told Metro at the Scope awards, where she won celebrity role model of the year.
‘But to anyone who says oh ‘you can’t make a joke about anything any more’, you can,’ Jones explains.
‘You can make a joke about anything you want to, you just need to ask yourself three questions. One: Who are you? Are you in a position where you can authentically tell that joke.
‘Two: Who is the joke directed at? Are you punching down? Are you telling a joke about a group that you are not a part of, and you have no experience of? If so, don’t say it. It’s not your business.’
She concludes, ‘And three: Why are you telling that joke? If you are making that joke just to be controversial, just to be provocative, just to get a cheap laugh, it’s not your place.
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‘But, if you telling that joke to make people laugh, and to make people change their perceptions on a certain topic – great, go ahead.’
Jones says her comedy, such as the award-winning sitcom Pushers, seeks to do just that.
‘People think when you have a little laugh, it’s meaningless, but it always has meaning. Comedy has the ability to disarm people, but also when you’re relaxed, you’ve been put in a place where you can receive messages,’ she says.
‘That’s when you can change people’s minds for the better and target misconceptions.’
On such misconceptions, Jones says: ‘Disabled people are often seen as vulnerable, victims and even asexual. We’re seen as people who can’t have jobs and can’t have fully rounded, fulfilled, brilliant lives. That’s not the case at all.
‘Someone who comes to my gig, or watches my show, might start by thinking ‘”oh, poor her. I bet her life is a bit crap.” Through my comedy, I show my personality and who I am, and people can leave knowing that disabled people are just like everyone else.’
Jones isn’t only making waves through her comedy.
In April last year, she launched the Rosie Jones Foundation, which has already changed the lives of thousands of people living with cerebral palsy.
The charity works to ensure those living with the condition have access to appropriate, lived experience-led mental health support.
‘It’s so important. I know that first-hand. I’ve seen a lot of councillors and therapists who are non-disabled, and when you don’t have that common ground, people get confused.
‘Lived experience provides that understanding, and sparks real, tangible change.
‘Not only in counselling but in every sector and every job, lived experience of cerebral palsy is so important.
‘Because if we don’t amplify disabled voices, how can we make this world a better place for everybody?’
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