Heckler Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

Heckler

I hate hecklers. I really hate them. It’s bad enough when people chat during a comedy show but to actually shout out your random mind pops is just about the most annoying thing you can do. To me it’s no different to talking in the cinema. I paid to listen to a comedian not some drunk… and yet I know people who like it when hecklers strike. They see it as the ultimate test of a comedian’s skill and, after seeing one particularly brutal set, have insisted that it was the comedian’s fault for not ‘owning’ the stage. So is heckling legitimate? Why do people do it? And why does Heckler make me want to shout at the screen?

Possibly because Jaime Kennedy seems to see anyone who shares a negative opinion about him as a heckler. According to him I’m heckling right now. Elsewhere in the film there are interesting points made by other comedians (some hate hecklers, some love hecklers, some see it as a test, some as a nuisance and there is some great footage of when heckling goes bad) but Kennedy comes of as a petulant child, annoyed that some people don’t find him to be the funniest man in the room or the best actor in the world. Can you really moan that some people didn’t take to kindly to Son of the Mask (2005) ?

…and yet he does touch upon some interesting points about inane nature of internet ‘criticism’ and he is right to feel vexed at the sheer hatred shown by some individuals. I like to think that I write fair reviews about my feelings towards a film etc (and would welcome comments when I am unfair) and so on but just a quick glance at IMDB will bring up the spectre of ‘worst movie ever’ or ‘insert name here has betrayed the true fans’. Just this week I’ve been reading about the awful vilification of critic Armond White based on his (actually quite interesting) review of District 9 (2009)… but is this heckling? Surely the difference is that the internet is founded on the basis of sharing information whilst stand-up comedy is a format where people have been paid to entertain?

It’s a contentious point and I have to admit that the guy who heckled Stephen K. Amos at the Latitude Festival (in order to point out that mercury was only dangerous in it’s ionic form) was one of the high points in a very good show – but I think that ruining an act is a shameful thing to do and that using an anonymous login to insult someone over a film you were never forced to sit through is equally low…

…but Kennedy’s own inability to respond like an adult and take a higher ground really scuppers what could have been a fascinating documentary.