Billy Connolly slams 'comedy censorship'

Billy Connolly has spoken about unfairly branded "vulgarian and foul mouthed" comedians.

The comic, currently performing at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, was adamant that causing offence was not comedy's purpose.

Speaking to Five Live, Connolly said: "I don't offend, that's not my job. My job is to make people laugh. There's a lot of deep and desperate unfairness been going on."

"I think it was George Carlin [US comic] who said, 'the job of a comedian is to know where the line is and to step over it'.

"We will dictate where that line is and where it should be. If you swear in a book, you're some kind of clever guy, if you swear in a poem, oh how dangerous he is, you swear in a song - oh my God, what a groundbreaker!

"You swear as a comedian, and you're a vulgarian and foul mouthed. When did this happen? Who's doing the judging?"