Comedian Dave Chappelle has emerged from near silence to grace us once again with a new comedy special on Netflix, The Age of Spin. While Chappelle’s aim is to surely bring new jokes to the table and give everyone a much-needed laugh, it’s doing something else: exposing liberals of having no sense of humor.
It shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that comedy has always pushed the limits of societal norms. That’s what makes a joke funny. But in this day and age of safe spaces and trigger warnings, too many liberals feel they need to be coddle through life and hear nothing that offends. Which begs the question: why would they even turn on a comedy special anyway?
Well, they did and they heard some stuff they didn’t like, especially the one where he talks about meeting O.J. Simpson for the first time along with his “soon to be slain wife.” That brought some groans from the audience, to which Chappelle replied, “Ladies and gentlemen, man the f*** up or you’re not going to make it through the end of this show.”
But many didn’t. Chappelle’s “politically incorrect” comedy was called out by several liberal critics. One of them was Shannon Lee of The Establishment who wrote:
Comedians have long argued that their art form is meant to be provocative; that it’s a medium in which “political correctness” is anathema to the cause. But as others have argued, it’s absurd to act as if there is no moral responsibility in comedy. Comedy that targets societal oppression can be funny and incisive, even (or especially) as it stokes discomfort. Comedy that ridicules marginalized groups is just hateful and damaging, evoking more explicit hate speech. Don’t comedians have a responsibility to create content that does not cause harm?
Now, THAT’s funny!
How about we simplify this process. Why don’t we let comedians do what they do and if we don’t like what they say, we don’t listen to them. That sounds pretty easy, doesn’t it? Instead, liberals have to tell everyone else how we’re doing it wrong and how much better the world would be if we did things their way.
And what an unfunny world that would be.
H/T National Review
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