London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 10, 2025

‘Forgotten how to behave’: comics say audiences more abusive post-lockdown

‘Forgotten how to behave’: comics say audiences more abusive post-lockdown

Comedians such as Nish Kumar say they have noticed a change since crowds have returned to clubs
It was halfway through a show in Shrewsbury when Nish Kumar noticed an audience member being disruptive. It became so bad that he asked the man to leave, and on his way out the man turned to the comedian.

“He shouted: ‘To be completely honest with you, my friend bought these tickets, and I thought I had tickets to see Romesh [Ranganathan],” Kumar said. He responded by explaining to the audience why the comment could be construed as racist and moved on.

Confrontational behaviour at club gigs – where audiences have not paid to see a specific act and may not be familiar with the material – is one thing but the heckling that Kumar got was at a tour gig, where for the most part audiences know what they’re getting. “It was a real shock to the system,” Kumar said.

The next night in Cheltenham, after he had posted about the incident on Instagram, someone called out “where’s Romesh?”. Again, he explained why that wasn’t funny, and then another audience member told him to “stop being so sensitive”. When he addressed her she doubled down, and she later wrote a letter of complaint to Kumar’s agent.

“There’s something in the water,” said Kumar, who has noticed a change in audience behaviour since the pandemic. “I’ve had a few conversations with other comics and there’s a sense that something doesn’t quite feel right.”

Comedians are not alone in noticing a shift in behaviour since the end of lockdown. There have been reports from supermarket workers and bus drivers of worsening treatment by customers, and concerns from child psychologists about a lack of empathy in children.

Writing in the Guardian, the comedian Dani Johns says that since the lockdown restrictions lifted and live audiences returned to clubs, there has been an uptick in the amount of abuse and harassment she has received. Johns writes that “a small but noticeable percentage of audience members have forgotten how to behave in public … things have escalated since the pandemic – from aggressive heckling, to talking over the act, to jumping on stage.”

In January a woman has been thrown out of Ranganathan’s gig at London’s Hammersmith Apollo after reportedly racially abusing the comedian. In October 2021 the comedian Rosie Jones, who has cerebral palsy, was targeted online by trolls who sent abusive messages after she appeared on Question Time.

Charlotte Bence, of the performers’ union Equity, said it was too simple to put the kind of behaviour experienced by comics solely down to the pandemic. “It was a problem before,” she said. “[But] perhaps our ability to collectively distinguish between how we are when we’re in our own homes or with our very close friends versus how we are when we’re out and about has been knocked about, I don’t know.”

Bence said harassment and bad behaviour towards acts was “only part of the story of how things for comics need to improve”. Equity is launching a comedians’ charter this summer at fringe festivals, aimed at making gigging safer for comics. Compiled by comedians, it calls for anti-harassment and discrimination policies to be displayed clearly in venues, with warnings that abuse will result in perpetrators being removed without a refund.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
×