Connolly: People judge comedians harshly

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LONDON, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Scottish comedian Billy Connolly says comedians in the United Kingdom are held to a higher standard of conduct than other artists and he thinks that's unfair.

Connolly, 67, is currently performing a series of stand-up dates at London's Hammersmith Apollo.

"I think it was (the late U.S. comedian) George Carlin who said, 'The job of a comedian is to know where the line is and to step over it,'" the BBC quoted Connolly as saying at the South Bank Awards ceremony last week.

"We will dictate where that line is and where it should be," he said. "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? 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."