The alleged comedian Jim Davidson has commented on the death of the Cornish comedian Jethro, saying, “I never met anyone who had a bad word to say about him and that’s a measure of a man for me.” Unintentionally, that reveals as much about Davidson than it does about Jethro because for every person who admits to finding him funny, you will find a load more who find him as funny as a burning orphanage. Jethro – Geoff Rowe, actually – was genuinely funny man whose humour transcended generations.
None of which is to say that Jethro did not stray into dubious areas like racism, homophobia and misogyny – he did – but to my mind whilst he often got close to the line beyond which you will find the likes of Davidson and Chubby Brown, he rarely crossed it. For Jethro, it was all about the joke. For lesser comedians, racism, homophobia and misogyny was the joke.
It is a regret that I never saw him live but I have seen some of his DVDs and I always found myself laughing out loud, sometimes at things I later wondered if I should have. The twinkle in his eye always did it for me and the next time I’d laugh just as much.
People referred to Jethro as “old school”, which is true, although his unique humour reached well beyond traditional audiences, unlike some of his contemporaries.
I’d say he was a comedy great and it’s a sad day that he is no more.
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