"The thing I thought about doing it was it's Comic Relief and you've got to be funny. So although I did try to sing properly it obviously has hilarious results when you can't sing"
About this Quote
Jo Brand’s line is a neat little manifesto for the kind of comedy Comic Relief trades on: competence is optional, commitment is mandatory. She frames the whole situation with a blunt, almost workmanlike logic - “it’s Comic Relief and you’ve got to be funny” - as if humor were a contractual obligation rather than a personality trait. That matter-of-factness is the joke’s engine. It strips away the usual celebrity performance anxiety (“Will I be good?”) and replaces it with a different metric: “Will this land?”
The subtext is a knowing bargain with the audience. Comic Relief thrives on public vulnerability packaged as entertainment: viewers donate, stars humiliate themselves just enough to feel human, everyone gets the warm glow of charity without surrendering the pleasure of spectacle. Brand acknowledges the mechanism openly. She “did try to sing properly,” which signals effort and respect for the cause, but she also leans into the inevitability of failure - “obviously” - to pre-empt criticism. If you can’t sing, the worst thing you can do is pretend you can; the second-best thing is to attempt sincerity and let the gap between intention and ability do the comedic work.
There’s also a gentle jab at the cultural obsession with celebrities crossing lanes. The line treats “can’t sing” not as a flaw to be hidden but as usable material, an asset when the brief is laughter. Brand’s self-deprecation reads less like insecurity and more like professional control: she’s steering the narrative so the joke is on the format, not on her.
The subtext is a knowing bargain with the audience. Comic Relief thrives on public vulnerability packaged as entertainment: viewers donate, stars humiliate themselves just enough to feel human, everyone gets the warm glow of charity without surrendering the pleasure of spectacle. Brand acknowledges the mechanism openly. She “did try to sing properly,” which signals effort and respect for the cause, but she also leans into the inevitability of failure - “obviously” - to pre-empt criticism. If you can’t sing, the worst thing you can do is pretend you can; the second-best thing is to attempt sincerity and let the gap between intention and ability do the comedic work.
There’s also a gentle jab at the cultural obsession with celebrities crossing lanes. The line treats “can’t sing” not as a flaw to be hidden but as usable material, an asset when the brief is laughter. Brand’s self-deprecation reads less like insecurity and more like professional control: she’s steering the narrative so the joke is on the format, not on her.
Quote Details
| Topic | Funny |
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