May 22, 2022

"y’all ever hear ~12,000 people laugh at a transphobic joke, while you’re a trans person in the audience who didn’t know..."

"... the transphobic comedian would make a surprise appearance at the John Mulaney show? yeah. wasn’t fun. fuck you D.C."

Tweeted someone named "rae (spookiest version)," quoted in "John Mulaney Draws Criticism for Having Dave Chappelle Open, Tell ‘Transphobic Jokes’ at Ohio Show." 

That's in Variety, and I appreciate its putting "transphobic jokes" in quotation marks, but I think we need to see the actual jokes. I'm just going to assume that this was more material like what we saw in "The Closer," which some people characterized as transphobic and others did not. 

And there is something odd about going to see one comedian and getting surprised by the appearance of somebody you would actively boycott because you see him as picking on people like you. You're sitting there in a big group of people with whom you were expecting to feel camaraderie, and there they are, all around you, laughing, and you're thrown into a horrible feeling of alienation, which isn't what you paid your money for and what you anticipated as you went out for a good time that night.

Should comedians make people uncomfortable? That's asking the question at a high level of generality. Maybe comedians should make people uncomfortable but only the people who are too comfortable and never at the expense of the people who are already uncomfortable. 

And maybe audiences who pay to see a comedian who doesn't deal in discomfort should be spared being subjected to a comedian who does. Variety says John Mulaney "tends to stay away from political or social issues" — whatever that means. So maybe this is a case of that. People who expected not to get challenged got challenged. 

Mulaney obviously chose to do that to his crowd, so readjust what you think of his tendencies. Why did he inflict Dave Chappelle on his audience? He had to want to do that. 

ADDED: TMZ gives some idea of one of the jokes. You know how Chappelle was attacked on stage by a man who was carrying a knife that folded up into a fake gun: 

 

Chappelle seems to have called that "a gun that identifies as a knife" (or was it "a knife that identifies as a gun"?)

90 comments:

mgarbowski said...

At some point we were bound to get pushback on the ridiculous ideas that words are violence and discomfort is violence and jokes are violence and every hyper-offended person deserves to be catered to.
One way you do that is invite Dave Chappelle to a John Mulaney show. The rather obvious meta meaning is "This is harmless. Get over it. Laugh"

Kai Akker said...

---You're sitting there in a big group of people with whom you were expecting to feel camaraderie, and there they are, all around you, laughing, and you're thrown into a horrible feeling of alienation,

--- which isn't what you paid your money for

---and what you anticipated as you went out for a good time that night.

---Should comedians make people uncomfortable?

--- ... Maybe comedians should make people uncomfortable but only the people who are too comfortable and never at the expense of the people who are already uncomfortable.

--- And maybe audiences who pay to see a comedian who doesn't deal in discomfort should be spared being subjected to a comedian who does.

Yeah! So many opportunities to make laws there. Had to break them out in their individual anxieties.

Howard said...

What's there to figure out? John Mulvaney is an up and coming millennials comic. Chappelle is considered in the GOAT conversation, certainly the Greatest of GenX. It's a generational passing of the torch anointing the young fella that he's ballin in center court with the big boys.

Mike Sylwester said...

If you are a male who wants to live as a female, then you are abnormal. Sometimes people will laugh at your abnormality.

Being abnormally fat, thin, tall, short, ugly, stupid, etc., sometimes causes jokes and laughter.

This pious trans person in the audience himself sometimes laughs at other people's abnormalities.

Heartless Aztec said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Black Bellamy said...

"Inflict"? 12,000 people laughed and one person didn't for sure, and maybe some others. Dave Chapelle was inflicted on him but not the 12,000 people. For them it was a welcome surprise. Should Mulaney provide welcome surprises which delight the vast majority of his audience? I don't know, should he?

Howard said...

I understand the problem now. Chappelle messed up the punchline. Obviously it's a knife that identifies as a gun. It's always the nonfunctional aspect that is identified with.

rhhardin said...

A joke must have at least two of the following characteristics. Three for a worthwhile joke, more is excellent. Notice cruel. Women don't like humor.

Clever: "You recognize clever when you see it. It's just combining things that people didn't think you were going to combine, but yet you somehow made it work."
Naughty: "Naughty is usually just sex or bathroom jokes."
Bizarre: "Bizarre just means two things out of place."
Cruel: "Cruelty is a staple in humor. Cruel just means something bad happened to somebody or you said something unkind to somebody. You know cruel when you see it."
Cute: "Cute is usually just kids and animals."
Recognizable: "Humor usually requires that you recognize something about the subject of the joke being like your experience or like yourself. It's either like somebody you know, like you, but has to be familiar. Something you recognize."

rhhardin said...

Here's a meta-joke, as it appeared in English subtitles of German language Das Boot season 1

Do you know the difference between a pussy and a panty?
No
A panty doesn't smack when you take out the sausage.

I"d suppose that's naughty and clever in German, hence a joke. It fails in English because the clever wordplay element is lost.

chickelit said...

It's possible that the 1 in 12,000 person went looking for a fight but brought the wrong weapon.

Christopher B said...

"Should comedians make people uncomfortable?"

Laughter is, in general, a neutral dissipation of our 'fight or flight' response. Think of your reaction the last time you were harmlessly startled, hit a moment where you realized you just narrowly escaped injury, or the feeling after finishing a roller-coaster ride. We still get the rush but with no need to either fight or flee the energy has to go somewhere. A comedian evokes those same feelings of discomfort, which can include imagined social discomfort, in an environment when we're not going to fight or flee.

If you answer that question in the negative, you're not talking about something that makes you laugh.

Dude1394 said...

Terms of service. If you don’t like it, walk out.

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

Swift says something about good or true satire not picking on people for something they can't help--say poverty (from misfortune) or stupidity. There have been lots of jokes about both poverty and stupidity--possibly recognized as not the highest or best humor. The hayseed: many people can identify with this, given their own ancestors or childhood. Swift is not the same as his narrator/"hero" Gulliver--the name perhaps evoking "gullible." Part of the idea is that Gulliver can be admired for his sense of adventure, and his willingness to learn, otherwise there would be no point in using him as a character, but he is in a way stupider than Swift. A fictional character. Camille Paglia says no great comic writer has ever made fun of menstruation, and that is because it is not funny--it is just nature pounding on human beings in a very brutal way, limiting choices. Maybe sacred in a way. Today's victims want to say they can't help being the way they are, so any jokes at their expense are inappropriate, a furthering of injustice, etc. But they bring an ideology that only their oppressors are wrong, they are themselves sources of wisdom and superior morality, we become morally superior just by reciting the right slogans about them, etc. Now that is funny. Wanting to reveal yourself to as many people as possible, knowing that we tend not to like each other very much at best, yet demanding that this will work out really well, every time. Funny.

James said...

I was actually at that show (I know, you're not gonna believe me, but it's true). Was supposed to go with my daughter but she ditched me because she got free Harry Styles tickets, so went with the Mrs. Sat in the absolute furthest back seat in the whole damn arena, backs up against the wall in the tippy top row. Was shocked as hell to see Chappelle there, took me a minute to recognize him since I had no expectation of him being there. Honestly, his set wasn't that memorable, though I do remember the knife identifying as a gun joke, that was pretty funny.

Saint Croix said...

Should comedians make people uncomfortable?

They should make people laugh! 12,000 people laughed!

Holy shit, Althouse. I don't even know where to begin. Dave Chappelle is funny. People love Chappelle. John Mulaney is my favorite comedian. To go to a Mulaney show and be surprised by Chappelle? That would be amazing!

And there is something odd about going to see one comedian and getting surprised by the appearance of somebody you would actively boycott because you see him as picking on people like you.

No. There's something odd in being born in one sex and then, twenty or thirty years later, thinking, "hey, I should be the other sex." That's odd, Althouse.

If 12,000 people are laughing at a comedian's set, and a few unhappy people complain on Twitter, chances are they are the odd ones.

You feel bad, because they are hurting. Okay. But let's not twist around reality and say that the comedians are odd and the audience is odd. The odds ones out are the odd ones out.

You might think it's normal for a man to want to be a woman, or a woman who wants to be a man, so they are taking high levels of steroids to change their biology. And some of them are having surgeries to change the appearance of their biology.

It's not normal. It's strange. It's unusual.

It's fine to feel sympathy for minorities who are heavily outnumbered. You have a good heart that you feel like that. But that does not mean that you should start hating on 12,000 people who laughed and had a good time at a comedian's show. Or that you should hate on an entire city ("fuck you D.C.").

Maybe he put Chappelle on his show because the man was assaulted by some deranged individual? And Mulaney wanted to show his support?

Kudos to Mulaney and shame on you for attacking him, even a little bit. He's my favorite comedian.

Mulaney's Trump joke.

Mulaney's gay homeless joke

Mulaney makes fun of college.

Mulaney fights the bullies

Mulaney tries to stay nice

Mulaney says, What's New, Pussycat?

Mulaney says Fuck Da Police

Ambrose said...

In the future everyone will be made uncomfortable for 15 minutes.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

I know the heartbreak and pain. Something hurtful happens to me nearly every day. Really, the President should pass a law.

John henry said...

A couple weeks ago Scott Adams introduced the first black character in Dilbert.

Dave was hired specifically to bump the company's DIE numbers.

The joke is that Dave "identifies" as white.

Scott expected pushback from the race warriors but got none.

He did not expect pushback from crossdressers and got an incredible amount to the extent that a number of papers did not run the strips and a few canceled dilbert altogether.

The knife has to "identify" as a gun because it is not a gun.

The crossdresser "identifies" as a woman (or a man) specifically because they are not. An actual woman (or man) doesn't need to "identify" as anything because they are a woman (or man)

Fuck these sad, crazy, people. I am happy to leave them alone in their delusion. I can even go along with their pretense. They won't let me. I must believe they are women (or men)

It's not enough, Winston, to say that 2+2=5.you must believe that 2+2=5"

John LGKTQ Henry

Fun fact of the day:Ukraine produces 3% if the world's wheat but is going to cause a global famine.

WK said...

We were at the show. Chappelle received a pretty warm welcome. Lots of standing ovation folks. Crowd skewed younger. 20-30s. (Saw David Spade last night and crowd was much grayer). More groans than I would have expected at the knife/gun joke. But younger crowd. Had seen Mulany on Netflix and generally liked his style. This show was a bit of a departure as 45 min of his set focused on his drug/rehab experiences over the last couple years. He developed an ongoing dialog with a 13yo girl on the audience as a “don’t do what I did” touchpoint. Which seemed a bit creepy after a while. He doesn’t get too political but did make a few anti Florida jokes and is definitely not a conservative. I enjoyed Chappelle’s brief set. They are jokes. Lighten up Francis.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

"Mulaney obviously chose to do that to his crowd, so readjust what you think of his tendencies. Why did he inflict Dave Chappelle on his audience? He had to want to do that."

There are only so many successful comedians. John Mulaney was probably animated by showing solidarity to a fellow comedian after he, Dave Chappelle, was rushed on stage a short time ago.

Bob Boyd said...

If there's a demand for safe comedy, some will fill it. Others will continue to do what they hope their audience, a collection of total strangers, will enjoy, knowing they can't please everyone.

If somebody tries to do a safe comedy show, there will be no shortage of people tweeting anonymously to tell them they failed.

I would bet that if some actual anti-trans person at the show started giving rae a hard time for being trans, all 12,000 other audience members, with Dave Chappelle leading the charge, would have rushed to rae's defense and the anti-trans person would have been lucky to get out of there in one piece.

Gahrie said...

So, apparently offending the Right is GOOD comedy and offending the Left is bad comedy.

John henry said...

Shouldn't the person be Hector the 12,000 who laughed, apparently many lesbian, gay, crossdresser and friends.

What's wrong with these people? Why didn't they stand up in outrage shooting Chappelle down?

It is more their fault than Chappelle's. They proved themselves not to be allies. Not Chappelle's fault, he's just giving them what they want. He would stop if there was pushback

John LGKTQ Henry

Ted said...

John Mulaney divorced his wife, started dating a very attractive actress, and had a baby with her -- and his ex-wife has been publicly unhappy about all this. In some quarters, that's already half-grounds for cancellation.

Tommy Duncan said...

When a man dresses like a woman he has made a decision to do so.

When someone is offended by something another person has said he has made a decision to be offended. There are other options available such as being amused, being bored, being charmed or being aroused.

Lets learn to live with our decisions. Why should I care when you decide to be offended?

John henry said...

Paglia may be right about "no great comic writer" doing menstruation jokes.

Perhaps the emphasis is on the "great". A lot of comics do menstrual humor.

The I-pad video

Sarah Silverman with her bit about tampon machines.

Some woman who has a bit about how if men got periods they would be bragging about how heavy they are.

Snl (I think) once did a sketch about a woman making her boyfriend buy tampons for her.

And a lot more.

Probably a good thing overall for normalizing it.

John LGKTQ Henry

Saint Croix said...

One of my links is wrong. Sorry!

Mulaney's gay homeless joke

Mulaney blackout drunk

Mulaney drinking too much

Bender said...

Meanwhile this guy who is objecting has no problem with erasing women or erasing lesbians or erasing gays. No doubt he is one of those trashing lesbians who insist that a penis is a deal-breaker, saying they are anti-trans, for example.

Lurker21 said...

Should comedians make people uncomfortable?

What works in clubs doesn't fly in stadiums. Comedy clubs should have trigger warning signs out side. Or maybe guarantees that you get your money back if you aren't offended.

"A gun that identifies as a knife."

Grandad called those "bayonets."

Ann Althouse said...

"certainly the Greatest of GenX"

He may be the best, but it's not a "certainly" situation. I've googled for some lists, and I'm not seeing him put above Chris Rock and Louis C.K.

Lists predate Louis C.K.'s cancellation, but that's enough to undercut the assertion of certainty.

richlb said...

If you went to a Kid Rock concert and there was a surprise opening act of Neil Young (or vice versa), would you be justified being pissed?

Ann Althouse said...

I don't think you can have a definitive ranking on something like this, but it's conceivable that one comedian could be clearly above all others. For example, I thought if you had an all-time list, you'd have to put Lenny Bruce at the top, but no, I'm seeing him as after Richard Pryor and George Carlin on a Rolling Stone ranking and only 13th over at Paste.

Paste puts Pryor first and Chris Rock second. I understand putting Pryor first, but Chris Rock second? That seems crazy. But it's a matter of taste.

M said...

John Mulaney does a “I’m such a pathetic, weak male I should have been gay, but I’m not, isn’t that strange?” schtick. He is very gay friendly. So I can see where a person who can only enjoy a comic that completely panders to their world view would feel betrayed by the king of almost, but not quite, queer having Chappell at his show. Honestly surprised Mulaney did this.

holdfast said...

I find that Mulaney’s voice is a little too similar to Gilbert Godfried’s. voice. Not my thing.

Ann Althouse said...

"I understand the problem now. Chappelle messed up the punchline. Obviously it's a knife that identifies as a gun. It's always the nonfunctional aspect that is identified with."

I understand the solution now. If he said "a gun that identifies as a knife," then it's NOT transphobic.

Ann Althouse said...

I presume Mulaney *wants* more edge.

Mike Sylwester said...

Comedians are supposed to make fun only of Trump and Republicans.

Bender said...

Let's be clear with the whole trans thing.

It is not malicious laughing (at least not entirely and certainly not by everyone). Rather, it is the laughing that is part of what used to be recognized as reductio ad absurdum. It is laughing -- after previously cowering -- at the absurdity that X is Y, that a man is a woman -- and that some people actually expect/demand that you take it seriously.

Yes, it can be experienced as cruel. The smashing of one's fantasies often is. But that's all it was -- fantasy.

MikeR said...

It must be hard to think that you are surrounded by demons wherever you go.
Maybe take a moment and think about the important differences between your situation and the situation of a black person who finds himself in the wrong place in 1950.

AMDG said...

When someone is inflicted with the disease of Wokism the first symptom is the loss of any sense of humor.

I would suspect if you asked comedians to rank comedians then Don Rickles and Richard Pryor would come out on top.

TaeJohnDo said...

As a white, bald, fat, conservative, veteran, old guy, with an unusual last name (at least in most of the country), I can safely say there might have been a joke or two told about one of those tags that may have been offensive - and pretty damn funny. But that's just me. One of the most unusual was a guy in middle school who made fun of my last name. He asked if my Mom was Asian because my last name sounded Japanese. Which tells you a lot about his intelligence. My name is French-Canadian and why would I have my Mom's last name? Anyway, for the next week or so every time I would see him he'd yell out my last name with a little bow. Say, I think Mulaney stole part of my childhood!

Aggie said...

Was the knife triggered?

Wince said...

Saint Croix said...
Mulaney's (2019) Trump joke.

A "horse in the hospital" is looking pretty good right about now, thanks to Biden.

Biff said...

1) Someone who identifies as "Gay. Black. Sadly American. College Student. Trans Ally" sends a single tweet that calls John Mulaney a "piece of shit" and refers to a single joke about gender identity as a "transphobic tirade."

2) Responses to that tweet are overwhelmingly critical of the tweet, not the comedians.

3) Incident gets reported as Mulaney and Chapelle getting "slammed" or "dragged" for being transphobic.

Is there any reason why "journalists" are held in such low regard?

Rollo said...

The only thing I know about Mulaney ishat NBC gave him a show when there were dozens of better known and presumably more talented comics out there. It didn't last. I didn't watch. It sounded too much like one of those Seinfeld/Friends clones that were so common in the 1990s.

MayBee said...

Now this person knows what it's like to be a politically more conservative person watching SNL, The Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver, The Oscars.....

Something against you is inflicted on you in the middle of something you thought was going to be entertaining. I get it. Welcome to the club.

Lurker21 said...

John Mulaney does a “I’m such a pathetic, weak male I should have been gay, but I’m not, isn’t that strange?” schtick. He is very gay friendly. So I can see where a person who can only enjoy a comic that completely panders to their world view would feel betrayed by the king of almost, but not quite, queer having Chappell at his show.

The “I’m such a pathetic, weak male I should have been gay, but I’m not, isn’t that strange?” schtick could appeal to men with a similar condition and to women who have dealings with them, but isn't it inherently “homophobic,” that is to say, insulting to gay men? I suppose most people who go to a comedy show can take a joke, but for those who can't there's enough there to make activists not like or trust the guy.

Quaestor said...

Chappelle seems to have called that "a gun that identifies as a knife" (or was it "a knife that identifies as a gun"?

Doesn't matter. No matter how you dress it up it's a knife. Without the key components that define gun-ness, which aren't generally detectable to the casual eye, a knife will never be a gun. It may cease to be a knife if changes are made that negate its knife-ness, but it does not acquire gun-ness simply by forfeiting knife-ness.

Any true statement is transphobic... NO! We don't need to institute yet another lie in the form of a "progressive" neologism. Allow me to rephrase. Any true statement makes liars uncomfortable. So sorry.

Laslo Spatula said...

Perhaps comedians should publish a transcript of the jokes they intend to tell before the show, so people can decide if they would be offended or not before buying their ticket.

Then those who attend the show can nod along to all the jokes they had read, comfortable in a place of no surprises.

People could even then laugh before a punchline is delivered, signifying their approval of the joke they had laughed at when they read it previously.

Indeed, perhaps there could be comments allowed on the comedian's transcript site, and the audience could tell him ahead of time which jokes they will and will not laugh at. Protesters could tailor their grievances accordingly. Agreements could be reached.

It'd be good to have that all decided beforehand.

I am Laslo.

William said...

Is there all that much camaraderie in an audience of 12,000 people at a John Mulaney concert? A St. Crispin's Day vibe? We few, we happy few.....Maybe the transitioning people in the audience can get together and, in later years, talk about how they survived the onslaught of DC's joke and take comfort in each other's company and bravery.....I know certain female singers and certain sitcoms have gay followings. Today I learned that this phenomenon extends to stand up comedians.....Comedy is an art form that doesn't particularly travel well between generations. The pathos of Falstaff is far more accessible than the jokes he makes or inspires.

Joe Smith said...

What if you're a drug cartel kingpin and a comedian makes drug cartel kingpin jokes?

And stop with the y'alls, I'm begging you.

Unless you're someone born and raised South of the Mason/Dixon line, you can come up with something better.

Maybe the person quoted is a Southerner, but I hear it (and read it) all the time from mostly young people, many black, who have never had a glass of sweet tea in there lives.

Just stop it.

Michael said...

The knife/gun thing is pretty weak tea as transphobic. Surely there was worse than that...

Jamie said...

Say, I think Mulaney stole part of my childhood!

How DEHHH he!

Amadeus 48 said...

I know John Mulaney’s father. He is a great M&A lawyer—one of the best.

Kevin said...

When you go out of your house, bad and unintended things will happen.

Did these people learn nothing from the past couple of years?

Kevin said...

He wasn't sure if he was supposed to bring a knife to a gun fight or a gun to a knife fight.

But he was going to be prepared either way.

Kevin said...

He asked if my Mom was Asian because my last name sounded Japanese.

Did you know Segura was Japanese?

Also, Smith.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Borrowed: We really picked a bad generation to to start WWIII... They can't even fight the anxiety from being called by a wrong pronoun!

n.n said...

The democratic/dictatorial duality.

Temujin said...

Just a couple of days ago we heard Bill Maher say what millions of us have been saying or thinking for years: Not everything is about you.

Get over yourselves and wake up to the reality that you live in a world of about 7.7 Billion people. Good luck not getting insulted. Or...just grow a bit thicker layer of skin and get on with your life. Here's another idea: Learn to laugh at yourself.

Let's see. Do other people sit in a comedy audience and hear jokes about themselves or 'their people'? Jews, Blacks, Italians, Germans, Swedes, Irish, French, Indians & Native Americans, women, men, gays, straights, kids, adults, fat, skinny, mixed races, Asians of all kinds (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and on and on), Pacific Islanders, New Yorkers, Detroiters, San Franciscans, Hollywood actors, and on and on. And oh yeah: White People! Can't forget them. The most used target of all over the last five or so years.

We all manage to hear jokes about ourselves and laugh and get on with our lives. I suggest "rae" does the same. Or..."rae" should avoid comedy clubs. They can be so messy for your feelings.

Dad said...

Laslo nails it, as usual.

Narr said...

Didn't know about Mulaney. Some funny stuff. Segura also.

As for making people uncomfortable . . . seriously? A comedian isn't required to, but there's no reason not to, if the joke is good.

IMO, but I'm not a comedian. Or a law prof.

Y'all.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

1. Opening acts and guest artists are a diverse lot. As a fan of the headliner I’ve always appreciated those little surprises. This person apparently feels different about the presentation her headliner provided. Not newsworthy.
2. Comedy should be experienced, not analyzed, regulated and policed.
3. If you cannot handle concepts presented with humor in a safe controlled environment where alcohol is readily available how can you expect to handle life in the real world day to day?

Bob Boyd said...

Hollywood Consultant Admits 'Glee' Started the Wokeness Epidemic

This is a fascinating, well-written article.

A couple pull quotes:

In late September of 2017, a post appeared on Tumblr by a user calling herself twelveclara. Sounding like a combination between Jonathan Edwards and Enoch Powell by way of the girl’s locker room, twelveclara issued the following jeremiad to her followers about certain events that took place in 2011:

“y’all have no idea. none of u understand the suffering we went through. the hell. the endless war. u come in here and u try to start The Discourse but u dont get that we already made these mistakes. we already had the discourse and its done now. its over. its all over and u should let it stay dead but u wont and that’s why we all hate u”

Later on, twelveclara said of the same phenomenon, “its not history, its blood.”

Reading this, you might think twelveclara was describing some horrible world-historical event – a natural disaster, a plague, perhaps even a great mass outbreak of violence. You would be wrong. What she was actually describing was what it was like to spend time on Tumblr as a fan of the TV show Glee.

realestateacct said...

Tickets to see John Mullaney start at $85 and those for Chappelle start at $288. Most of the audience was probably thrilled to see him. But we all need to adjust our desires for the woke among us.

rcocean said...

Christian goes to a comedy show. Says:
"I was made unconfortable by the anti-religous jokes and blasphemy.
The hatred and mockery made me feel unsafe and threatened. "

What would be the Entertainment industries response?

realestateacct said...

My husband says the venue should refund rae's $85 and ban him from future events for his own protection.

Rabel said...

The "gun that identifies as a knife" (or vice versa) joke appeared on the internet within milliseconds of that police photo going online.

It spread around like Monkeypox at Bear Week. Kindergartners were telling it to the drag queeens at storytime.

My issue here is Chappelle using such a lame, used-up, secondhand joke. You're not going to claim "greatest" status with that sort of weak-ass copycrap.

I guess they didn't pay him so it might be OK.

mikee said...

So now the trans person knows how we normies feel when forced to experience the virtue signaling of all the prog performers, day in and day out.

Saint Croix said...

John Mulaney: drag queens and goth people

John Mulaney: Why buy the cow?

John Mulaney: gets a sex talk

John Mulaney: when good kids do nothing

John Mulaney: why you don't kill Hitler

John Mulaney: might be having a baby

walk don't run said...

If you can't laugh at yourself then you don't have a sense of humor!

Saint Croix said...

John Mulaney: it's a joke!

Caligula said...

Is the thesis here that acceptable public speech should be limited to that which is unlikely to make even the most sensitive and easily offended person in a crowd of 12,000 or more feel even momentarily a bit uneasy?

Paul A. Mapes said...

I'm a member of a group that has been relentlessly mocked by most comedians for at least the last 20 years, especially when they appear on network TV. I'm a Republican.

Paul A. Mapes said...

I'm a member of a group that has been relentlessly mocked by most comedians for at least the last 20 years, especially when they appear on network TV. I'm a Republican.

Clyde said...

Some people need to man up and get over it.

n.n said...

A gun with a blade orientation and the audacity of a scalpel.

cubanbob said...

To the Woke and Ridiculously Easily Offended I offer you this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt9GBafFzjE

Chip Taylor and The New Ukrainians

Greg The Class Traitor said...

And there is something odd about going to see one comedian and getting surprised by the appearance of somebody you would actively boycott because you see him as picking on people like you. You're sitting there in a big group of people with whom you were expecting to feel camaraderie, and there they are, all around you, laughing, and you're thrown into a horrible feeling of alienation, which isn't what you paid your money for and what you anticipated as you went out for a good time that night.

Gosh, you mean like going to a college commencement, and having the speakers engage in bullshit left wing political diatribes?

Yeah, sorry, that ship has sailed.

Let us know, oh "advocate" for "minorities", when you start attacking the people who insert their politics into speeches that aren't supposed to be about politics.

Because right now all you're doing is special pleading, so you can FOAD

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Camille Paglia says no great comic writer has ever made fun of menstruation

"You can't trust anything that bleeds for 5 days, but doesn't die"

Bunkypotatohead said...

Rae should wear a great big sign identifying as trans so that no one will inadvertently offend it again.

Chris Lopes said...

Carrying what he was carrying, he's lucky he wasn't shot by some off duty cop. I don't give a shit how just you think your grand and glorious cause is. You physically attack someone who isn't really threatening you (angry words don't count asshole) you get stomped on.

Tina Trent said...

Variety is largely free and documents the media industry with a je ne sais quio attitude. Take a look at their archives from 75 years ago. Any library will have it.

Gk1 said...

It reminds me of that 'Comedians in Cars getting Coffee' episode with Steve Harvey and his response to the perpetually offended was "Take one for the team" "You laughed at all those other jokes at the expense of someone else but when a joke somehow hits too close to you it's not funny any more?"

Grow the fuck up. Not everything is about you, particularly humor by stand up comedians. Just turn the channel or don't watch.

“Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.”

Josephbleau said...

"Is the thesis here that acceptable public speech should be limited to that which is unlikely to make even the most sensitive and easily offended person in a crowd of 12,000 or more feel even momentarily a bit uneasy?"

At a p value of 0.05 we would expect 1 offended person in 20, so a value of 600 offended in a crowd of 12,000 would be considered the upper bound of neutral, what to worry about. One offended person in 12,000 is random error. Unless you don't believe in science.

Tom said...

Frankly, Bill Burr is the greatest of GenX. Dave is awesome. But Bill Burr put in the work. That dude has some of the most amazing and uncomfortable comedy of all time. His takedown of Philly is legendary. And that guy has a real risk of of being cancel that Chappell doesn’t really face. And he brings it every night.

I love Chappell and the great thing about living in Ohio is that we run into him every once in a while in Yellowsprings. But, Bill Burr is right there with him and I think, at times, even better.

Jupiter said...

Just imagine, if you identified as a Martian, and someone started telling Martian jokes!

Jupiter said...

"Tickets to see John Mullaney start at $85 and those for Chappelle start at $288."

Really? That's insane.

Rusty said...

Just remember. In the end the joke is on you. It's always been on you. Laugh it up. The ride only gets darker.

the dude said...

Ann...just a quick comment. I get that someone in a comedy audience might feel uncomfortable about jokes specific to their background/identity. But that's what comedy does. If every white, hetero, dad-bod guy objected to comedians, comedy wouldn't exist. But most of us can (and have to)take a joke. This is getting ridiculous. If you can't laugh at yourself, you might be the problem.