Amanda Knox's fringe show reignites debate on trauma and comedy

The objection to Cartwheel is that this is not a story in which Knox is the only person with a claim to the tragedy. The events are a continuing bereavement for Kercher's family.

Knox is entitled to tell her own story. She spent years imprisoned after a wrongful conviction. Public fascination turned her life into a permanent piece of entertainment. She lost years of privacy to media scrutiny.

The bigger question is whether comedy should be circumscribed to avoid certain topics. In 2017, Hannah Gadsby's Nanette used stand-up to talk about violence, sexism, and personal trauma while questioning the idea that painful experiences should simply be converted into jokes.

The complicating factor is who gets to own a story. Gadsby dealt primarily with their own experiences. Knox's material sits alongside somebody else's tragedy. Knox can legitimately explore the impact of her imprisonment. The Kercher family can understandably object to those same events being served up as entertainment.

Over the past few years Knox has produced a TV series about her trial and written a memoir. Her sold-out comedy show is part of a continuing effort to reclaim her narrative. This is difficult to separate from the media culture she says distorted her life. She has put herself further into the public eye to process its effect on her.

Most reviews suggest there is little that is funny about the show and that it has been mislabelled as stand-up. The debate over whether Knox has crossed a line shows how hard it is to draw one between comedy, trauma, storytelling and ownership.