Friday essay: is ‘wokeness’ killing comedy – or are ageing comedians crying wolf?
Friday essay: is ‘wokeness’ killing comedy – or are ageing comedians crying wolf?
Manners have changed. This is a good thing. But many comedians who moan about being ‘cancelled’ are actually thriving in an era of supposed increased sensitivity.
Seinfeld went on a tangent about how, he believes, political correctness has ruined comedy: "It used to be you would go home at the end of the day, most people would go, ‘Oh, Cheers is on, oh, MAS*H is on, Mary Tyler Moore is on, All in the Family is on.’ You just expect that, ‘There’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.’ Guess what? Where is it? Where is it? This is the result of the extreme left and PC crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people. "
Oh Jerry, are you really that poor a student of history? There's a beautiful parallel from history that can help you understand.
Before TV was the main source of entertainment, it was Radio. In 1935 there was a very popular radio comedy show called "Amos 'n' Andy". The premise was frequently based upon the hair-brained schemes trying to get ahead or get rich of 2, and sometimes 3 black men.
The voices of the characters used black slang or vernacular on every episode. The biggest problem with this today is that, none of the writers or voice actors were even black. They were all white men essentially poking fun at black men.
In stage appearance, the white men would be in black makeup..
In 1938 this was considered hilarious! The show ran for decades and even later spawned a short run TV show. So why isn't it still on the radio today, Jerry? This was considered some of the height of comedy, but GenX certainly didn't grow up on it. Could it be that society evolved just a tiny bit and decided making fun this particular marginalized group as a regular thing shouldn't be acceptable? Where is your outrage at that PC action, Jerry? Why aren't you using your fortune to bring back this racist comedy?
Also, to your other question, reason that people don't go home and watch network television in primetime as the main source of entertainment is we have on-demand streaming now. Just like TV displaced radio as the primary entertainment, streaming has displaced network television.
Welcome to 2024, Jerry.
such a tough time for edgelords
It's a damn shame that all these old comedians can't keep taking potshots at their favorite targets anymore. Whatever will they do?
Millionaire comedians whining about being canceled during a comedy show is like a billionaire complaining about being broke while sitting in a tub full of money.