Comedy is often offensive. Offensive comedy can often be funny.
Tell that to the social justice warriors, the self-proclaimed grievance police who think comedy directed at anybody other than rich white men is offensive and as such, has no place in their creepy little worlds. As such, when Trevor Noah, a progressive and soon to be host of The Daily Show had tweets he made from 5-6 years ago blasted all over Twitter, it revealed a penchant for jokes that sought out Jews, Israel and fat women as targets.
When I first saw them, I wasn’t sure what to think other than that they weren’t funny. That was the worst part. As it played out over a few days, conservatives for the most part were taking a similar stance as I did. His tweets weren’t funny but they were only offensive in that context. He was trying to be funny. His goal was get to get people to laugh. He failed on that front.
For Noah however, the trouble for him came not from the right, but from the left and the perpetually outraged social justice warriors. Granted, being that most of these losers have #FreePalestine hashtags in their Twitter bios, they couldn’t give a lick about Noah’s tweets about Jews or Israel, but they set the Internet on fire for him having the audacity to make fun of fat women. There was some talk that Noah would have to step down, but in the end, Comedy Central stuck with their guy.
Granted, had Noah been somebody who looked like Craig Kilborn, it would have been all over. First of all, the SJW’s would have wet themselves at Comedy Central going the “typical white male” route but he wouldn’t have been able to withstand the torrents of rage that would have plagued the Internet.
I asked Kat Timpf from National Review as she was making comments about the Noah dust-up and she said:
I'm not commenting on the jokes themselves, but correcting misconceptions about comedy, which is an art form that's under attack @JayCaruso
— Katherine Timpf (@KatTimpf) March 31, 2015
She’s right. Comedy is an art form. And it is one that is always under attack these days because nobody is allowed to be offensive – even if it’s very funny. But there are two exceptions:
Conservatives and Christians.
This is not a complaint. It’s merely a fact. It’s the reason SJW’s and others on the left, latch on to half-ass comedians like John Fugelsang and Andy Borowitz. It’s safe because their targets are safe. Here’s one from Borowitz:
Maybe I'm a dreamer, but I wish mental health care were as easy to get as, say, a gun.
— Andy Borowitz (@BorowitzReport) December 14, 2012
And Fugelsang:
If you criticize Obama for making deals with Iran it's time to finally throw out your Reagan Love Doll.
— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) April 3, 2015
Are you guffawing yet?
What if there was a tweet from a comedian on Twitter that said the following:
“I have this nightmare that I go to Hollywood and find out Mr. T is a faggot.”
Imagine the rage. Imagine the media coverage. Now imagine it was Eddie Murphy saying it during one of the best stand up routines in history. It’s from his stand-up movie, ‘Delirious.’
I lived in New Jersey for 20 years. When I was in high school, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays a local cable station would broadcast recordings of the Rascals Comedy Hour from Rascals in West Orange, NJ. Many of the comedians who were there at that time are now household names. The comedy was raw, hilarious and could be ridiculously offensive. One of my favorites was the late John Fox. I was surprised when I found video of him on YouTube.
His act here starts out with the line, “Two fireman are buttf**king in a smoke filled room.” He goes on to joke about his girlfriend, his ex wife, women in general including speculating what it would be like if men menstruated.
Comedy, like Kat said, is art. And it can only be great art when the artist is not inhibited from what he or she says because of the possibility they might offend somebody.
It’s the reason Murphy and Fox are funny and John Fugelsang and Andy Borowitz aren’t.
If the social justice warrior twits get their way, it’s the only kind of comedy that will be allowed and how boring would that be?