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RIP, Jeremy Hardy, one of the UK's funniest lefty comedians

Jeremy Hardy - Stand up against racism - Newcastle (some bad language)

I first encountered Jeremy Hardy as a panelist on Radio 4’s News Quiz, where he frequently reduced me to tears of hysterical laughter; I went on to buy the full back-catalogue of his old Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation shows and devoured them, going back for several re-listens.


Hardy is dead, and too young: cancer took him at 57.

On Crooked Timber, Harry Brighouse remembers Hardy: “I sometimes wondered whether you had to (roughly) share his politics to find him funny: my evidence against this is that my friend from secondary school who says she’s voted for every major political party loved him as much as I do and, now, Hugo Rifkind’s charming twit.”


The Guardian’s Mark Lawson provides a detailed obit: “Hardy’s political history and identity is neatly captured by two recent tweets. The comedian’s own last message on his official account – sent at 2.40am on 8 January – attacked Tony Blair’s latest intervention in the Brexit debate, warning that the former premier risked precipitating hard Brexit and a right-wing Tory government. Then, after Hardy’s death, a tweet from Jeremy Corbyn’s account read: ‘Jeremy Hardy was a dear, lifelong friend. He always gave his all for everyone else and the campaigns for social justice.’

(Image:
Andy Davison
, CC-BY-SA
)

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