“Jeffrey Dahmer and Hannibal Lecter have just killed and cooked up a couple o’ circus clowns. After taking a few nibbles, Dahmer furrows his brow in disgust, gently places the foot he was eating back on his plate and asks ‘does this taste funny to you’?”
Did you find yourself laughing at this variation of the “two cannibals joke” or are you utterly disgusted? Can murder be funny? Is it wrong that I bust a gut every time Jason Voorhees picks up that poor camper cowering away in her sleeping bag and smucks her dead upside a tree? What about Chucky or the Gingerdead Man? Surely, it’s fine to laugh at that. Hey, I got a soft spot for killer cookies. Don’t judge me!
But what about those real monsters or actual horrendous events?
Mark Twain once postulated that “humor is tragedy plus time” but, damn it Mr. Clemens, how much time? A year…a week…a few seconds after uncle Seymour slips on that banana peel and plummets into the Grand Canyon? While ol’ Hannibal the Cannibal in the joke above is fictional, Jeffery Dahmer was very real, the killer and sometimes cooker of at least 17 victims between 1978 and 1991. Okay so that’s, what, almost three decades ago? Can I now crack a joke about Jeffy?
Here in Ottawa we have a restaurant called the Mongolian Hotpot. Its logo is Attila the Hun, a raper and pillager. It makes you think, hey, will ever come a time where something like Hitler Burgers? I asked this question to comedian Gilbert Gottfried, a guy who’s jokes about 9-11 and the earthquake that devastated Japan back in 2011 landed him in hot water.
“I remember seeing a news thing, a funny reporter was there, and he was taking about the first car. He said the first person killed in a car accident, going on to mention his name which now means nothing. It was all done very light hearted,” said Gottfried. “I thought, well, when it happened it wasn’t so funny. It’s still a bad thing that it happened. Now, though, we feel like we’ve waited. We can laugh at it now. However, if somebody says it more currently we have to get outraged."
But how long should we wait?
A 2014 article from Scientific American attempts to shed a little light on the “how much time” quandary by highlighting the research of Dr. Peter McGraw, an expert in the field of judgement, decision making, emotion, affect and mood. He examined humorous responses to Hurricane Sandy and discovered that what others thought was funny about the tragedy actually had a peak that, after about 100 days, dropped into the too tsunami zone.
“Time creates a comedic sweet spot that occurs when the psychological distance from a tragedy is large enough to buffer people from threat (creating a benign violation) but not so large that the event becomes a purely benign, nonthreatening situation,” wrote McGraw. “The finding can help psychologists understand how people cope and provide clues to what makes things funny and when they will be funny.”
Thanks science but, let’s face it, it’s all kinda’ subjective, right? My girlfriend finds the aforementioned scene in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood horrendous as do I anything that stars Hugh Grant. I also think every word that spurts out of that talking toupee wearing orange they call an American President is pretty hilarious but, still, enough found that hilarity cause to place him into office. If only George Carlin had entered politics.
Brit comedians Rachel Fairburn and Kiri Pritchard-Mclean aren’t looking to provide any answers; they’ve got too many serial killers to squeeze in between their punchlines. The duo are the giggles and guffaws behind All Killa No Filla, a true crime podcast that takes a comedic stab, if you will, at the vilest of murderers. Berkowitz, Aileen Wuornos, Bundy, and yup, even Dahmer have been covered on the show. Canuck criminals also provide some funny fuel fodder with episodes on Bernardo and Homolka as well as Robert Pickton.
“We never make light of the cases, the crimes or the victims,” explains Pritchard-Mclean. “There are lines we would never cross. Most of the humor comes from everything else we talk about...and we really do talk about everything.”
That they do!
You see, one of the best parts of this show isn’t necessarily the gruesome details of a crime that sell papers but the meandering treks the two hosts take around those details. All Killa No Filla often veers so far away from the subject at hand that you find yourself wondering if they can ever make it back again. Some have said the show should really be called All Filla No Killa. You’ll be listening to Fairburn and Pritchard-Mclean discuss some psycho’s sickening spree and suddenly find yourself in the middle of a rant about duo’s dislike of thong underwear, how one of them pissed in a saucepan to multiple forays of lust directed at Liam and Noel Gallagher.
Oddly, this technique makes the grimmer stuff seem all the more real. Allow me to elaborate. While other true crime pods get you into a groove for an hour or so laying out the facts and theories that dive you headlong into the deaths and disappearances, Kiri and Rachel’s jovial off topic romps sideswipe you back into the horrors with a sucker punch to the temple smack dab in the middle of your belly laugh. Seriously, it’s like hitting the peak of an orgasm only to be simultaneously crashed into by a bullet train or, worse, shown a nude photo of Estelle Getty A Clockwork Orange-style. Ack!
Judging from their growing audience, a lot of people are finding humor in the macabre along with them. They show has become so popular that All Killa No Filla has even hit the road for some sold out live gigs in the UK. It lands in the U.S. come September.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be taking All Killa No Filla across the pond,” Fairburn says. “It’s amazing to think something we record once a month in our spare room has resonated with so many people. We can’t wait to chat murder and wear ridiculous outfits in some of the coolest cities in the world.”
While the two have found a way to seamlessly stitch together crime and comedy, they point out to listeners that this isn’t hero worship. Their jokes, whether you find them funny or not, are not meant to glorify the killers or their crimes.
“If we’re doing this then at least we’re not writing to them in prison.”
All Killa No Filla Hosts: Rachel Fairburn and Kiri Pritchard-Mclean # of Episodes: 48 Favorite Episodes: Episode 45 - Donad "Pee Wee" Gaskins / Episode 24 - Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo / Episode 2 - BTK
ow you can help: Toss a few bucks to Rachel and Kiri over at their Patreon page.
Andre Gagne: Two comedians with an interest in serial killers! I don’t know about you, but I think we got a sitcom! How did you two meet?
Rachel Fairburn and Kiri Pritchard-Mclean: We are both stand-up comics and people kept telling us we had similar interests. It then turned out we lived across the road from each other in Manchester so we just decided to do a podcast together.
Everyone is going to come at what they think is funny from different angles but when did you two realize you were cracking enough people up to think “damn, I’m funny”?
That's a tough one. We both have always loved comedy and if you are funny, you've always been funny. We have basically been messing about all our lives.
Thennn, on the other side of things, was there any particular case that got each of you interested in serial killers?
Kiri was fascinated by the JonBenét Ramsay case when she was young and Rachel was fascinated by the Fred and Rose West case.
When did you two realize you both found serial killers fascinating? I mean, not the kinda’ convo that usually comes up over tea and scones!
There wasn't a particular chat we had. Comedians tend to talk about all kinds of stuff so it was a natural conversation topic.
Obviously, with the sold-out UK and US tours, there’s an appetite for the comically macabre. Why do you think people are so drawn into knowing more about serial killers?
Probably because serial killing is so far removed from the remit of a normal person. I think people are fascinated by behaviour that is alien to them.
How do you feel the show translates in front of a live audience?
The live shows are amazing. We just do what we do normally but in amazing outfits. The audiences are great. They make us feel like rock stars.
One of my favorite aspects of the show is how you go off on tangents that have no relation to the topic but still manage to circle back ‘round again. Do you even try to keep each other in check when recording and does a lot gets snippy sniped in the editing?
We do edit some stuff but mainly yawning and burping. We are pretty solid at getting back on topic. Live shows are where you really see us keeping each other on topic.
Along those lines, what sorta’ research is put into the show before recording it and how are your killers selected?
We ask listeners who they want us to do and we do loads of research. Each episode probably has over 3 hours of research in the background.
While you’re approach to the material you cover is a comedic one, you can tell you are really disturbed by what you are saying and the crimes you are talking about. How do you feel researching and topic about the most dreadful of things, even between jokes, affects you on a personal level?
It can get you down a bit, especially when we did the three-parter on The West's over the Christmas period. It's when you think of the victims and their families that it really hits home.
What have been some of the more fascinating things you’ve discovered about one another while doing the show?
We didn't really know each other when we started and you can really hear our friendship evolve. We know far too much about each other now from eating habits to sex lives...sometimes that’s the same thing.
I learned something! Methinks somebody has an Oasis obsession. What would an All Killa No Filla show sound like if one of the Gallagher brothers turned out to be a serial killer?
Rachel is obsessed with Oasis and Kiri basically tolerates it. They are genuinely the most important thing in her life. But, if one of the lads became a serial killer, we would have to throw the "archive" in the bin.
What has been one of the most insane things you’ve learned about one of the killers you’ve discussed?
Pretty much everything Marcel Petiot did was bat shit crazy. You'd have to listen to the episode as there is far too much.
Being British, you’ve mentioned a few times how American audiences may not know what you are referring to. I mean, personally, I find it all kinda’ educational.
Oh yeah, people love learning new slang words from us which is great.
What do you each think the funniest way to kill somebody would be?
Making them laugh to death. Quite sweet really.