ARGUING YES
Lou Perez
Comedian, Producer, Author of “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore”
ARGUING NO
Michael Ian Black
Actor and Comedian
GUEST MODERATOR
Nick Gillespie
Editor-at-Large of Reason
Here is what we have in store this week:
- We debate whether comedy can survive the age of political correctness
- A closer look at how likely Americans today are offended by some jokes
- Your Sunday reading list
“Can’t you take a joke?” Those five words contain a more complex story than what may at first seem obvious.
Consider what usually leads up to it. Person A makes a remark. Person B takes offense at the remark. Person A, now on the defensive for having given offense, asserts that Person B is one or all of the following:
a) overly senstitive
b) misinterpreting Person A’s intentions
c) lacking in a sense of humor
Lots of cross-currents in that exchange. A lot of human dynamics. And they’re what we’re exploring in this week’s release, where we are debating this question: Is Wokeness Killing Comedy?
On the one hand, we hear some professional comics talk about the threat of “cancellation.” On the other, it’s just a fact that some material considered witty thirty years ago (think jokes about women, minorities, and disabled people) just don’t seem very clever anymore.
So what’s the trend, and is it taking comedy and the culture to a better place or the opposite?
For this debate, my good friend (and an actually witty person himself) Nick Gillespie will be standing in for me as moderator. We also have two professional comics as our panelists. And let me say, they don’t just do jokes. They also do argument quite well!
I hope you’ll listen.
Sincerely,
John
DEBATING THE DATA
If this question was asked a decade ago, what percentages would those answers be?
POINT/COUNTERPOINT
Is Wokeness Killing Comedy?
YES
“It would be one thing if wokeness was just like goofy stuff we can laugh at, but there’s a very strong censorship component to it. It’s also a problem because wokeness has infected every institution — academia, media, entertainment — so they actually have the power to shut you down, to shut you up. At its most basic level, wokeness is a puritanism that strangles creativity [and] kills joy.”
Lou Perez
NO
“Wokeness is actually good for comedy. Part of what’s so good about it is the trickle-down effect. When we start saying we as an audience, or we as performers, should be more sensitive to the kinds of things we’re saying, or have stronger opinions about the kinds of things we’re receiving, what it does is it makes comedy a safer space for people who weren’t necessarily performing comedy before.”
Michael Ian Black
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