All about that MSG rally, comedy, politics, and the power of context
Is comedy really a battle between the woke and the free speechers?
Look, you can joke about immigrants in a funny way…
…re: that, I wrote about the MSG rally, comedy, politics, and the power of context over at
. Check it out here.We keep seeing comedy stuff framed as a battle between the woke and the free speechers. But that seems like a false choice.
I can’t say I’m with the humorless scolds, but I also think that with power comes responsibility. And when you look at how much comedians and politicians are coming together lately, it’s clear comedians are becoming increasingly powerful.
The left may be too sensitive nowadays, but the right has abused “I was being sarcastic” and “I’m just joking” as excuses. It reminds me of when Jon Stewart tried to claim he shouldn’t be taken seriously because “the show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls.” We all knew that was just a lame attempt to have it both ways.
And yes, free speech is vital, especially to comedians. But how can you invoke it as your crucial issue and then support a candidate who wants to throw CBS off the air because 60 Minutes was mean to him? Do you think an authoritarian government is going to be good for comedy? Who’s your favorite comedian from a fascist country? Exactly.
I get it, wokeism has gone too far. But how can comedians kvetch about people getting offended too easily and then complain like a snowflake when people dislike their intentionally provocative jokes?
It all feels like proof we keep slipping further and further from any sort of agreed-upon reality. Now, everything is up for grabs. And it’s tough to say “of course I was joking” when there is no “of course” anymore.
Read the rest. I really let loose.
A gallery of some excerpts:
Others have been writing about it too…
answers, “Why did the late great Don Rickles seem to get away with what Tony Hinchcliffe does not?”Several reasons; it’s not totally irrelevant that it was a different time, but that isn’t the whole picture. Rickles was clearly doing his best to pick on everyone, doing it to their face. He would go into his audience and talk to people and then make jokes about the people he was talking to. The character was clear, as was the affection. Also, he was Jewish himself, a group that knows a thing or two about oppression. And he was funny. Yeah, that’s a huge part of it. Don Rickles was actually funny.
Marc Maron: “The Democratic Idea.”
Even though I do not do a political show I have been very clear in my specials and on the podcast that I believe, and have believed for years, what is brewing in this country is an American fascist movement rooted half in grievance and half in Jesus and enabled by tech oligarchs and an inundation of propaganda from many sources.
The anti-woke flank of the new fascism is being driven almost exclusively by comics, my peers. Whether or not they are self-serving or true believers in the new fascism is unimportant. They are of the movement. Whether they see themselves as acolytes or just comics doesn’t matter. Whether they are driven by the idea that what they are fighting for is a free speech issue or whether they are truly morally bankrupt racists doesn’t matter. They are part of the public face of a fascist political movement that seeks to destroy the democratic idea.
Comedians criticize Tony Hinchcliffe’s jokes at Trump rally.
“So the question that I would ask Tony would be: What else are you trying to say Because all that’s left is the racism at that point, and you want me to be shocked at the racism, but the fact of the matter is you accomplished your goal, but you didn’t make me laugh.”
Jeselnik posted this again:
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And this Carlin clip has been making the rounds:
Ari had a different take:
And fyi, here’s Rickles at a Reagan event (via Tony himself).
What a business.
