"It's just a joke, why are you so mad about it?

Laughing is an important part of life. Without the capability to find humour in the world, humanity would be a bleak dark cesspool, where everybody would rarely smile. The comedy genre is one of my favourite ones, because the possibility and imagination are boundless. Physical comedy, absurdist comedy, refferential and situational comedy- there are so many wonderful topics that can be touched upon to make people laugh. But despite being what I consider to be an important aspect of humanity, comedy is more divided than ever! Why is that exactly? Well, to start we should look at something that has been something of a hot topic for awhile... stand up comedy.

If somebody disagrees with a joke in a movie, thats pretty understandable. It has to be seen by many people, have active participants involved, and it might not always land with its intended audience. Stand up comedy doesn't have many people working on the joke, and it is insanely personal to each individual comedian that walks onto that stage. There are a handful of comedians whose work I have sincerely enjoyed in the past: Dave Chappelle, John Mulaney, Bill Burr are some of the more popular ones that I've enjoyed their specials. I used to find their wit and energy infectious, and there are so many bits of theres that still make me chuckle, like the drunk party bit from Mulaney's special, or many episodes of the Chappelle show, showing off his comedic skit skills. However, as time passes, subjects become more dated- and the dreaded "Cancel culture" affected many artists, but why? What actions or words could they have used to get cancelled?

To be completely honest, I started writing this because of the whole Shane Gillis SNL Monologue debacle where he got on stage and started making fun of women's outfits in the gym as well as many other topics that just didn't land with its audience. I don't know a lot about Gillis, but I know he's a very popular comedian that has gotten a lot of flack for his comments. The timing of the bit wasn't exactly great, with people understandably still pissed off about the Cornell 7 debacle, so the comments here seemed to be needlessly targeted towards people just trying to be comfortable at the gym. This made me think about all the comedians who get upset and say "you can't say anything nowadays, or else you'll just get cancelled by all these liberals today" with a sigh and an eye-roll. The thing is... you can still say anything you want. The world has laws about free speech, about every individual having the right to voice your opinion. You're not getting cancelled because you cant say anything, you're getting cancelled because your words have consequences and you do not like the results of those words you chose to send out into the world. And that is really the crux of the problem here- what is inherently funny, and what is an excuse to say hateful, discriminatory things with the guise of it being a joke?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AWXZClv0fI

I guess this article is just to vent really. I think jokes that are made solely to be at others peoples expense aren't really funny jokes. It is something that is designed to be hurtful, only for others to use it as a defence, and that to me, doesn't feel right at all. And watching so many people use that defence, both popular comedians and friends and family members that I care about, makes it harder and harder to deal with the realization that it doesn't matter how many times you think someone is a person who should be cancelled, because god knows how many other people share those opinions, and say the same exact damn things that everyone else in the world does.

Growing up, I always wanted to make people laugh, it was a feeling that made me feel warm inside, something that was nice to do. I always took pride in my abilities to make someone happy, if only for a minute. If that's how I feel, I can only imagine the feelings it makes actual practised comedians feel. Now though, I feel my passion for standup and being a comic in general fading away. Because I can no longer find myself looking at a world where one person standing on stage attempting to make others laugh can change into one person reciting terrible and rude comments, all in order to be a jackass in the name of free speech.