Ed Byrne on why Brexit just isn't funny ahead of his date at the Parr Hall

Ed Byrne reckons we all have a sense of humour fail when it comes to the UK’s plans to withdraw from the EU.

So much so that the Irish comedian has started to withhold one of his gags on the latest run of his tour.

Ed told Weekend: “There’s one joke I do which is a reference to Brexit and if it’s a really pro-Brexit crowd I tend not to bother with it.

“It’s one of those weird ones which people are clannish and touchy about. I find it very disappointing that for some reason it’s the one thing that people don’t have a sense of humour about – on either side of the coin.

“It’s not a joke that’s particularly pro or anti-Brexit. It’s just a joke that mentions Brexit and it’s just one line but if I find I’m in an area that is very pro-Brexit they just don’t like it.

“I’m not going to say it just to annoy them. It’s just a weird thing. You could make jokes slagging off the Conservative Party in front of people who are Tory voters and they’d still laugh.

“You could make jokes about the Labour Party and their supporters would laugh. Where it’s become very polarised is if you make a joke about Corbyn in front of ‘Corbynistas’ or if you make a joke about UKIP in front of ‘Ukippers’, they don’t like it.

“As it gets further out from the centre people get really touchy.”

So do Ed’s audiences tend to reflect the almost 50/50 split on the B-word?

The 45-year-old added: “It can depend on where you are but – and I’m generalising here – the people who come to see me are more in the Remain camp. My promoter put out a tweet about my tour and it was weird how many people came on and said: ‘I’m not going to see another typical, intellectual, left wing, pro EU traitor’.

“People of that mindset seem against me. I’ve never heard anyone say: ‘I’m not going to see him, he’s too right wing for me’ but I have seen people with Union Jack avatars complaining that I’m a ‘typical BBC leftie comic’.

“That’s the tribe I belong to I suppose.”

Ed admits that the comedy circuit now tends to lean towards the left – but he reckons this helps redress the balance following the swing to the right in British politics.

The Never Mind the Buzzcocks regular said: “People complain that there’s not enough balance in comedy. That comedy has a tendency to be a bit more left wing but I feel that politics has become very right-wing – and so the balance is that comedy be left-wing.

“If you look at UKIP, considering how many MPs they’ve got, they’re very well represented on things like This Week and Question Time.

“On the news the right is very well represented and so it’s almost like it’s almost up to entertainment to find the balance.”

All this furore over one little joke about Brexit is probably why Ed tends to shy away from politics on stage.

He added: “I’m probably less inclined to do political comedy now.

“Even though my audience know me from Mock The Week which is essentially a current affairs political show some of the funniest moments in the show have had nothing to do with politics.

“I think politics is more depressing now and people are going to see comedy as an escape, as a way not to think about it.

“And if you’re going to do political comedy people are happy for you to make fun of Trump, for instance, because they just feel that bit more removed from him. And by and large there is a consensus on him.

“I’m not what you would consider a ‘brave political voice’ in the comedy scene.

“I know what my role is. I’m here to cheer people up and make them laugh. I’m not here to change hearts and minds. I’m accepting of that role.”

That leads us neatly onto what Ed will be talking about on stage at the Parr Hall on Friday, December 8.

His latest routine, Spoiler Alert, explores the thin line between righteous complaining and brat-like whining and asks are we right to be fed up, or are we spoilt?

Ed, dad to Magnus, aged five, and Cosmo, aged six, said: “The show has become more and more about my kids and how spoilt they are compared to the upbringing I had.

“But it’s also about how spoilt we are generally as people and the things we expect and want and demand.

“I like hanging out with my kids and I bear no ill will towards my own dad but when I look at the amount of parenting I’m expected to do versus the amount of parenting I received I feel a bit short-changed.

“I think with parents in general – but dads in particular – in a couple of generations the shift of how involved we are expected to be is massive.

“Even looking at the amount of ‘being a dad’ my dad is doing now that he’s a granddad you kind of think: ‘You never picked any of us up like that’.

“One of the things I joke about is push button starts for instance in cars. I’ve had four cars in 10 years and they’re not fancy cars yet with every one of them you don’t start it by turning a key but by pressing a button.

“Who decided that was drudgery we needed to be released from?

“It’s a car. You need to make some sort of effort to drive it but now it’s things like the windscreen wipers have got to come on automatically.

“I also talk about bucket lists and the very concept of that.

“It’s one thing if you’re dying, then fair enough, but otherwise you can’t do anything after you’ve died so basically what you’ve done is just make a list of things you want to do

“It’s a bit self-centred isn’t it?”

Ed’s mammoth tour will take him through to June 2018 and, apart from Christmas, there are few breaks in between so how does he stay sane?

He added: “There’s three of us – I have a tour manager and Paul Myrehaug is my support act on this leg.

“And we actually have three PlayStations that travel around with us so we can play Wipeout together.

“We’ve got them in cases with little TVs in them – so we look like a band. We look like we’re carrying around a load of gear.

“Paul is really good at Wipeout then it’s the tour manager who’s an excellent driver so he’s very good at finding the racing line then it’s very much me at the back which is a shame as it’s me who bought the game and suggest that we all play it.”

And although Ed is away from his wife and kids for long periods he says overall he gets more time with his family than those working a 9 to 5.

He said: “At the moment it’s difficult but it pays off. For six months I’m not home a great deal but for the other 18 months of a two-year cycle I’m home with them.

“I’ve got friends who are up before their kids go to school and get home from work when they’re in bed and they only see their kids at the weekend.

“That’s their whole life and that’s hard so I’m still quite lucky in that regard.

“Plus I’m a bit more mercenary now about where I play. If a gig isn’t either a lot of fun or financially rewarding I don’t go back

“I keep a diary now and Parr Hall is in my ‘cool list’.”

Ed Byrne - Spoiler Alert will be at the Parr Hall on December 8. 

For tickets and more information, click here.