Stephen Fry's Woke Rebuke: Better Late Than Never?

Triggernometry comments draw criticism from both sides

Stephen Fry on Triggernometry

“I’m not sure I do support Stonewall,” Stephen Fry told

Triggernometry

about the LGBT charity that controversially lost its mind over woke gender bananas.

If we want the world to be better, we talk to people…I have no interest or support of this current wave of nonsensical… It’s shameful and sad that what I used to call “the” community…has got stuck in a terrible quagmire.

These simple - and quite correct - words have ripped through the gender-critical world (notably, not a monolith) like a wildfire. Some are delighted to hear Fry resoundingly tear wokeness - and Stonewall in particular - apart.

Others consider this too little too late. So what is Fry’s legacy on wokeness?

JK Rowling aside, very few big-name mainstream celebrities were vocal about the insanity of gender ideology when it was at its most oppressive. It took Have I Got News For You many years to even make a tepid joke about the number of queer flags.

HIGNFY mocked this nonsense

Several celebrities have contacted me to confess that they enjoy my podcast Heretics and wish they could speak out about its many topics, from gender to mass immigration.

But they don’t.

Stephen Fry just did.

But was it too late? And does it matter?

First, let me confess: I love Stephen Fry.

I devoured his novels; my favourite parts of Blackadder are his; and I imagine him as Jeeves when reading Wodehouse. The embittered label him “the stupid person’s smart person”. Upon seeing his name in the title, I’m sure some have readied their fingers to type such a phrase.

This is wrong.

They really mean that he is popular - and presumably - wealthy. There has always been a portion of society that takes exception to intelligence in any form other than that of the Parisian cellar dweller living on stale bread, beer and cigarettes.

It takes extraordinary intelligence to communicate smarts with humour and simplicity to the masses. Millions are working at universities who can write theses that deliberately obfuscate to appear high-brow. But there is only one Stephen Fry, just as there is but one JK Rowling: these are uniquely intelligent individuals.

Stephen Fry on Dave Rubin

Now that’s out the way - and you know where my biases lie - let’s evaluate the claim that Fry skirted this skirmish to save his hide. Fry was once on the front line of anti-wokeness. This was almost ten years ago: “No one’s going to like you if you feel sorry for yourself. The irony is, we’ll feel sorry for you if you stop feeling sorry for yourself. Grow up.”

He has since guested not only on Triggernometry but Dave Rubin (where he hit out at the infantile culture of trigger words and safe spaces) and many other anti-woke political commentators; shows whose mere mention would terrify most mainstream celebrities.

One way to see where Fry stands on wokeness is through the eyes of the enemy. Consider this horrifically titled Guardian article by Paris Lees: “No one would listen to Stephen Fry if he was poor”. As is increasingly typical of the Left, Lees obliterates Fry for his…defence of free speech.

“So what?” became Fry’s response to the idea that someone was offended. Today’s Fry is less gung-ho, suggesting on Triggernometry that we temper speech that offends. Francis Foster interjected brilliantly to suggest that sometimes the truth is offensive. This is in line with something Fry said in 2022 that was a far cry from his ‘wave of nonsensical’ comment:

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