Ben Elton was not alone in using his platform to make political points. The 1980s were full of it - after all, it was not called "alternative" comedy for nothing.

David Dimbleby sharing podium with Davidson

But while politics tends is no longer the staple ingredient for many stand-up comedians' acts, they are finding other ways of making their points. In fact, they seem to be everywhere.

Just this week Jo Brand took part in a BBC Two programme about world debt.

Jim Davidson is following the lead set by Stephen Fry, Eddie Izzard and Brand herself by taking a seat with David Dimbleby on BBC One's Question Time on Thursday.

Showbiz lifestyle

Jo Brand explains why many comedians have become involved in good causes.

She told BBC News Online: "I know absolutely nothing about economics, but I like to do my bit.

"Most comics are nice people and doing benefits and taking on political causes is a very obvious way of giving something back."

Putting your name to a cause felt like the right thing to do "when you have a cushy showbiz lifestyle", she said.

Davidson was invited to go on to Question Time because he had a perspective on the Kosovo issue, having recently visited the Balkans to entertain the troops.

Eddie Izzard supporting the Prince's Trust

Eddie Izzard, among other celebrities, helped the government in an advertising campaign promoting green values.

Another campaign - to persuade people to become teachers - was supported by Izzard, Elton and John Cleese.

Stand-up comedian Ivor Dembina - who has never been asked to appear on Question Time - supports the right of comedians to nail their colours to the mast of a good cause.

But he says politicians making use of comedians is a different matter.

"Comedians are now being used because they give the politicans a kind of veneer of being in tune with the public mood, which is nonsense. It's just shoulder-rubbing," says Mr Dembina.

You at the back?

But going on programmes like Question Time raises different issues for him.

He finds the whole thing "dismal".

"It's the inevitable consequence of current trends in popular culture, the kind of fusion of entertainment and politics.

"Even in sophisticated democracies like Britain and the US, it's now less about what you do or what you say, but how you appear.

"It's a continuation of Reaganism, really - a guy becomes the most powerful man in the world because he's a good communicator.

'Keep comedy out of politics'

"And it's now comedians who are the people who get listened to because they're funny. I think what comedians should do is put politics into their act, not put their comedy into politics."

The threat posed by a fusion of entertainment and politics was articulated by American commentator Neil Postman, in his 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death.

He warned that the death of culture would come not from tyrants, but from entertainment taking the place of reasoned public debate.

Ivor Dembina

But, Dembina says, he can see the attraction of sitting alongside David Dimbleby.

"What's attractive to the comic performer is that you're given permission not to be funny the whole time," he says.

"Otherwise it would be ludicrous, they'd be debating capital punishment, and the other four panellists would be going for the deep, moral and sometimes tragic questions that surround that issue, and then someone would pop up and say 'Well here's one about the Englishman, the Irishman and the Jew who are about to be hanged. . .'."