What price a libel action over a bit of a laugh?

Comedy is a rich and wonderful thing, especially in today’s bewildering world. It offers a light-hearted escape from the daily stresses in our lives. It helps moderate the latest news from across the pond. And it is an answer to the futility of existence (this is one interpretation of Samuel Beckett’s oeuvre, anyway).

Whatever the case, UK and worldwide podcast listeners agree: comedy is the most popular podcasting genre in the UK and accounts for 30% of all listening hours for podcasts on Spotify worldwide.

And it isn’t just consumer listening habits that testify to the pre-eminence of comedy as their go-to genre. Lawyers have also been known to enjoy things that make them feel a little lighter about life – sometimes so much so, that they pop down to the High Court and sue over it.

Unfortunately, lawyerly desire to keep a good thing going – by debating the intricacies of comedic meaning in court – has a downside for comedians. Before you know it, ‘knock knock’ is met not by ‘who’s there?’ but an expensive bill.

There is hope. Spitting Image, for all its satirical evisceration of the notorious and unretiring of its day, did not suffer the indignity of a successful libel action. Today, the bar to sue successfully over comedy is high – rightly so. And comedy is something Reviewed & Cleared navigates every day, for content creators of all kinds, working across all platforms.

To find out more, email our CEO, Alex Wade, at alex@reviewedandcleared.com or talk to Louise Lambert, CSO, and Clare Hoban, CPO, at the forthcoming podcast show at the Business Design Centre, London, on the 21–22 May 2025.