Julia Louis-Dreyfus says comedians complaining about political correctness is a 'red flag': 'I believe being aware of certain sensitivities is not a bad thing.'
In comedy, things are funny if your audience thinks they’re funny. If your material isn’t received well, you’re targeting the wrong audience. If your material isn’t received well by anybody, the problem is you.
If your material isn’t received well, you’re targeting the wrong audience. If your material isn’t received well by anybody, the problem is you.
The problems start when they have been telling the “jokes” to the “right” (read: bigoted) audience (this could be their 3 drinking buddies or a small well chosen venue) and they land well, so when the group they’re targeting (and in really bad cases, the general population) doesn’t find it funny it’s their fault for being “too sensitive”, not the “comedian”'s for being an asshole. Privilege breeds entitlement and entitlement makes people believe that the way they experience life is how everyone must experience it, and any challenge to that is met with aggression and or defensiveness.
I think the other problem is the way humor changes over time. A comedian that did well a decade ago might not do so well now if they don’t keep up with peoples’ tastes. This is where I’ve seen some of the big names start to lose their following.
Bigoted jokes were never funny, they’re just pandering to the privileged group by punching down at and bullying those outside of it, it’s always been lazy and uncreative (aka “edgy”) “comedians” who resort to it, and that’s why they’re “less popular” now - because when you take the bigotry away, there’s nothing else left.
Unfortunately their privileged and entitled target audience is still large enough (and the interests of those in power to keep society divided strong enough) that they’re not “less popular” at all, the opposite in fact - they’re given netflix specials and continue to have massive platforms to spew their bigotry from despite being desperately unfunny, because it was never about the humour, and always about the spreading of hate and division towards marginalised groups.
Edit: this whole thing reminded me of this Alex Norris comic strip
In comedy, things are funny if your audience thinks they’re funny. If your material isn’t received well, you’re targeting the wrong audience. If your material isn’t received well by anybody, the problem is you.
The problems start when they have been telling the “jokes” to the “right” (read: bigoted) audience (this could be their 3 drinking buddies or a small well chosen venue) and they land well, so when the group they’re targeting (and in really bad cases, the general population) doesn’t find it funny it’s their fault for being “too sensitive”, not the “comedian”'s for being an asshole. Privilege breeds entitlement and entitlement makes people believe that the way they experience life is how everyone must experience it, and any challenge to that is met with aggression and or defensiveness.
I think the other problem is the way humor changes over time. A comedian that did well a decade ago might not do so well now if they don’t keep up with peoples’ tastes. This is where I’ve seen some of the big names start to lose their following.
Humour hasn’t changed.
Bigoted jokes were never funny, they’re just pandering to the privileged group by punching down at and bullying those outside of it, it’s always been lazy and uncreative (aka “edgy”) “comedians” who resort to it, and that’s why they’re “less popular” now - because when you take the bigotry away, there’s nothing else left.
Unfortunately their privileged and entitled target audience is still large enough (and the interests of those in power to keep society divided strong enough) that they’re not “less popular” at all, the opposite in fact - they’re given netflix specials and continue to have massive platforms to spew their bigotry from despite being desperately unfunny, because it was never about the humour, and always about the spreading of hate and division towards marginalised groups.
Edit: this whole thing reminded me of this Alex Norris comic strip