Show caption Comedian and actor Tim Allen performs in Pasadena, California. Photograph: Michael Schwartz/WireImage Laughing stock: the week in comedy Tim Allen demands to use the n-word The US actor sparks a fresh debate about racial jokes – and isn’t the only one. Meanwhile, could Ricky Gervais swing a record deal for David Brent? And Spotify launches a comedy app Brian Logan Tue 30 Jul 2013 13.23 BST Share on Facebook

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This week's comedy news

Comedian and actor Tim Allen is in a spot of bother this week. Specifically for telling the Tampa Bay Times that he should be able to say the n-word as much as he likes. "If I have no intent, if I show no intent, if I clearly am not a racist, then how can 'nigger' be bad coming out of my mouth?" asked Allen. The comic, who claimed to use the word regularly in his standup, added that "[the phrase] 'the n-word' is worse to me than nigger." African-American commentators politely but firmly disagreed. "Here's a general rule of thumb to follow when using the n-word for white people," said sociologist, author and radio host Michael Eric Dyson on MSNBC: "Never."

And Graham (John Shuttleworth) Fellows has written for the first time about the stage fright / memory loss incident that forced him to abandon his 2006 Fringe run. .

Best of the Guardian's comedy coverage

· "Gee, it would be nice to get up there and do that again." Is Woody Allen about to return to standup?

· "The best thing to happen to late-night since Colbert" – Brit standup John Oliver is getting rave reviews for his stint as host of The Daily Show.

· "The new Les Dawson" – fast-rising standup Lucy Beaumont given a short profile in the Observer.

This week's old news

A big story did the rounds in comedy this week, to the effect that Blackadder producer John Lloyd (who has an Edinburgh show to promote) has "revealed" – in an interview on BBC Breakfast - that he and Rowan Atkinson had fancied making a second world war, feature film version of the sitcom, in which Blackadder & co escape from Colditz.

It's an attractive idea, just as it was when described in Jem Roberts's well-publicised 2012 book The True History of the Blackadder. "We got quite far talking about one set in World War Two," Roberts quoted Lloyd as saying, "with a platoon of Dad's Army soldiers in a seaside resort. One day a German submarine appears, captures them and takes them to Colditz, where they have to escape. I thought that was quite funny…" Hold the front page (for about a year…)!

Best of our readers' comments

This week, Leo Benedictus in his Comedy Gold column wrote about Michael McIntyre, taking the unfashionable-in-some-quarters position that McIntyre is "a class act". A debate promptly ensued, and two regular commenters weighed in. WSobchak happily endorsed Leo's enthusiasm:

Slagging off McIntyre has become so predictable, and is worn like some badge of honour to advertise one's refined and non-mainstream taste … The [Eric] Morecambe comparison is fair enough. While it's permissible to like Eric Morecambe now, as he's no longer entertaining the lower orders, he was as subject to hatred from the middle-classes for his popular (and populist) routines while he was doing them. Back then, to advertise your credibility you had to have a Lenny Bruce album in your collection, and sneer at Morecambe, Cooper et al and those who enjoyed them, for not knowing what "real" comedy was.

Further below the line, LiberalAwesomeness exchanged views with Alfster on the issue of whether McIntyre owed his success to "fitting in well" with "well-spoken BBC executives":