Can it ever be legitimate – possible even – to make comedy out of the world’s most appalling tragedies?

A sitcom to be called Hungry, based on the Irish great famine (in which 1 million people died and another million were forced to emigrate in what some regard as an example of genocide), has been commissioned by Channel 4 from Dublin-based writer Hugh Travers. He told the Irish Times that “we’re kind of thinking of it as Shameless [a comedy about a dysfunctional Manchester family led by a drunken patriarch – Ed] in famine Ireland.”

In response, Dublin Fianna Fáil councillor, David McGuinness, described the proposal as a “total disgrace” and “nothing short of insulting” to the 2 million people affected. Niall O’Dowd, of the Irish-American site Irish Central blog, described it as an abomination and equivalent to comedies involving Holocaust victims and Ebola victims. Change.org have organised a petition NOT to make a comedy series, about the Irish famine which has 13,000 signatures and rising. It argues: Continue reading →