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Comedians and "crossing the line"

Skeptic Bob

Skeptic Bob

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So a couple things happened this week that got me to thinking. Of course Kathy Griffin did the head thing, but I don't want to rehash that. And then Bill Maher used the n-word in a joke while interviewing a Senator and now he is catching blowback, though not as bad.

There is nothing I like more than watching a great standup comedy routine. I'm a somewhat PC guy but I turn that part of my brain off when I watch standup.

So Bill Maher is catching flak for using the N-word. Meanwhile white comedians like Sara Silverman and Louis CK use the N-word in their standup routines with hardly any backlash.

Some of the most popular and, in my opinion, funniest comedians joke about the most controversial subjects in their stand ups. Racism, abortion, rape, religion, death, and everything under the sun.

So why the different reaction?

Is it that we give comedians more leeway when they are on stage doing standup than we give them on Twitter or when they are on a TV show? Obviously even then there are lines that can be crossed if it involves an audience member. Michael Richards destroyed his career when he called an audience member the N-word and Daniel Tosh received a lot of heat when he made a joke about a member of his audience being raped.

So my impression is a comedian can get away with saying whatever they want as long as they aren't attacking an actual person and it is in the context of a standup routine. And isn't on a college campus.

What do you think?
 
Skeptic Bob said:
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Is it that we give comedians more leeway when they are on stage doing standup than we give them on Twitter or when they are on a TV show? Obviously even then there are lines that can be crossed if it involves an audience member. Michael Richards destroyed his career when he called an audience member the N-word and Daniel Tosh received a lot of heat when he made a joke about a member of his audience being raped.

So my impression is a comedian can get away with saying whatever they want as long as they aren't attacking an actual person and it is in the context of a standup routine. And isn't on a college campus.

What do you think?
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There have been stand ups who get reamed for saying "bad" things in their act so it can happen, but yes the venue matters. Remember that Gilbert Godfried got fired from AFLAC for a few twitter words which were completely in character for him, had he said them in an act he would have been fine.

But mostly we are overly sensitive stuck up assholes now, we cant do the humor anymore...increasingly. The box that comedians are allowed to work in keeps shrinking, and almost no one cares.

We all lose from our increasing intolerance.

We might consider changing course.
 
In my personal opinion, a comedian shouldn't get flak for anything they say.

If you like their material and what they produce, then watch it. If you don't, then **** right off. This one of the many detriments this snowflake culture brings.
 
I hate being as conflicted as I am on KG, one the one hand the last thing I want to do is turn the screws on comedians, but on the other this was so gratuitously violent that I am disturbed.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
I hate being as conflicted as I am on KG, one the one hand the last thing I want to do is turn the screws on comedians, but on the other this was so gratuitously violent that I am disturbed.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I can see how a comedy skit might go bad and not be as funny as it seemed it might be, but this KG thing is different. It seems more political statement than comedy. I defy anybody to find anything funny in holding up a bloody, severed human head. There was no build up, no punch line, no context. Just her holding up the bloody, severed head of the president. I don't think her status as a comedian provides her cover for something that wasn't meant to be comedy. She was making a political statement that was vile and offensive and she was rightly called out for doing so.
 
Fletch said:
Yeah, I can see how a comedy skit might go bad and not be as funny as it seemed it might be, but this KG thing is different. It seems more political statement than comedy. I defy anybody to find anything funny in holding up a bloody, severed human head. There was no build up, no punch line, no context. Just her holding up the bloody, severed head of the president. I don't think her status as a comedian provides her cover for something that wasn't meant to be comedy. She was making a political statement that was vile and offensive and she was rightly called out for doing so.
Click to expand...
I believe that KG's thing was a political statement, absolutely. But it was still repugnant.
 
Skeptic Bob said:
So a couple things happened this week that got me to thinking. Of course Kathy Griffin did the head thing, but I don't want to rehash that. And then Bill Maher used the n-word in a joke while interviewing a Senator and now he is catching blowback, though not as bad.

There is nothing I like more than watching a great standup comedy routine. I'm a somewhat PC guy but I turn that part of my brain off when I watch standup.

So Bill Maher is catching flak for using the N-word. Meanwhile white comedians like Sara Silverman and Louis CK use the N-word in their standup routines with hardly any backlash.

Some of the most popular and, in my opinion, funniest comedians joke about the most controversial subjects in their stand ups. Racism, abortion, rape, religion, death, and everything under the sun.

So why the different reaction?

Is it that we give comedians more leeway when they are on stage doing standup than we give them on Twitter or when they are on a TV show? Obviously even then there are lines that can be crossed if it involves an audience member. Michael Richards destroyed his career when he called an audience member the N-word and Daniel Tosh received a lot of heat when he made a joke about a member of his audience being raped.

So my impression is a comedian can get away with saying whatever they want as long as they aren't attacking an actual person and it is in the context of a standup routine. And isn't on a college campus.

What do you think?
Click to expand...
I believe that comedy should get more leeway. A lot more leeway.

In the Maher incident, though, it wasn't a stand-up routine, it was a serious interview. I don't know if that should make a difference.
 
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