I grew up on Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry. Most of my best-loved childhood TV friends were regularly shot at, beaten up, squashed under anvils or exploded in many and various ways. Many years later, I watched Basil Fawlty regularly attack Manuel, his hapless Spanish waiter, and of course the Three Stooges were little more than a relentless series of violent gags.

Violence and humour may seem strange bedfellows, but they have been sleeping together for a very long time. So what are we to make about the latest round of outrage and handwringing over an ABC joke that clearly went too far?

I haven’t found too many people who thought that threatening cartoonish violence against Gina Rinehart was funny, and nor did I. The comment was criticised at the time on the program that aired it, the film-maker responsible for the comments has now apologised for a joke that went too far, and the ABC........

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