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Not to mention, the CEO of Netflix has literally chosen to side with Chappelle over his own employees-and, I’m willing the bet, the wishes of the company’s media relations department. Chappelle might wink at the idea that he has been ‘cancelled,’ particularly through his claims that Untitled has been dropped by film distributors and pulled from film festival lineups, but since he has booked theatres in 10 cities to screen it and is selling tickets through Live Nation, it’s hard to see how he has actually been silenced. For seven decades, comedians have willingly eliminated the f-word without screaming about censorship or accusing hosts such as Johnny Carson of tyranny.” Dave Chappelle and David Zucker aren’t actually concerned about the ‘sanctity of comedy.’ They just want to maintain their privilegeĪnd I guarantee that Chappelle and Zucker know Nesteroff is right. “ The Tonight Show was created in 1954 and became an important stand-up showcase. While “comedians resented interference… if it meant advancing their career, they went along with it,” he pointed out. In addition to the obscenity laws that saw comedians literally arrested for saying rude things, he points to the Irish and Italian immigrants who protested when comedians mocked them at the turn of the century and Black and Jewish Americans and Indigenous people who did the same in the early 1900s, not to mention the softer but arguably more powerful influence of corporate America. In fact, as author Kliph Nesteroff argued last week, “comedians have more freedom of speech today, not less” (emphasis mine). (And as an aside, doesn't this list sound almost… quaint? Tits!) The court battle over his joke eventually went to the Supreme Court, which ruled to uphold the Federal Communications Commission’s power to regulate language-and therefore decide what counts as indecency. Just a few years later, George Carlin, who was clearly influenced by Bruce, was charged with violating Wisconsin’s obscenity laws after performing a bit about the seven words you can’t say on television: Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker and tits.
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During his trial, huge celebrities spoke out in his defence, sparking a national conversation about freedom of speech. I mean, in 1964, Lenny Bruce was convicted of violating New York's obscenity laws and was sentenced to four months in a workhouse.
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While I’d argue that blackface and racist jokes are actually very vulgar, the larger point-that comedy has always occupied a fraught space where the ideal of free speech clashes with cultural mores around propriety and decency-still holds true. These shows were packed with big variety without the vulgarity.” In fact, local papers promoted ‘Clean Bills’ which referred to shows where good clean fun was guaranteed.
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Clean comedians were the norm… While there were many ‘off color’ entertainers to choose from, the general public appreciated the clean comedians. While many comedians swore up a storm off stage, they were what would later be called ‘fun for the whole family’ onstage. talent agency that helps clients book clean comedians for events, in the 1920s, “comedy abounded with racial stereotypes… but sexual language and obscenity was frowned upon. Broadcasters, audiences and lawmakers have been telling comedians what they’re ‘allowed’ to joke about for years. Don’t be fooled we’ve been talking about what comedians are ‘allowed’ to say for literally everįirst of all, we're not in some new and terrible period of censorship where comedy is under attack. Instead, all they’re really doing is being precious about their privilege. But it’s funny (though not funny haha, to be clear): despite what they think, these dudes aren’t scoring points in a debate about free speech.
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And David Zucker, the writer and director of comedy classic Airplane! as well as other, um, classic films like BASEketball and Scary Movie 3 through 5, just wrote a meandering op-ed about how he could never make a movie like Airplane! today because ‘wokeism’ is ruining comedy. In Chappelle’s latest rant about how he has been unfairly cancelled (which was delivered to what looks like a packed audience of fans, just for the record) he snarkily asserted that Hannah Gadsby, who has criticized both Chappelle and Netflix over the transphobia in The Closer, is not funny, playing into the lingering stereotype that women are incapable of grasping humour.