Have claims of the death of comedy been greatly exaggerated?
But actually, all of the comedians came across as thoroughly open-minded and non-offended, respecting the construction of a good joke first and foremost, and calmly playing down any talk of culture wars. Renkow, who has cerebral palsy and stars in BBC Three sitcom Jerk, was annoyed by people intervening on his behalf about what is or isnt offensive: by taking away someones ability to be made fun of, you take away some of their humanity, he argued. Copstick concluded that perhaps theres no great woke conspiracy to cancel comedians, and comedians always love having taboos to push against. Oh dear, said Copstick. Rethink?  And so she finished with maybe the greatest 21st-century taboo of all: she considered changing her mind. It was hard to tell whether Michael Palins Memory Palace (Radio 4, Wednesday) was an interview or a comedy programme; either way it was mind-expanding good fun. The premise was this: Michael Palin blasts radio producer James Peak into the memory palace of Palins fellow Python, Terry Gilliam, so that Peak can have a look around Gilliams memories and inspirations. Gilliam reflected on his childhood in Minnesota, and populated his mind palace with pine forests of his youth and snippets from his work. Radio interview programmes are usually disappointingly samey, but this zany approach was much more in the Python spirit, and therefore, much more engaging and surprising.