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As offensive or unfunny as Tosh’s joke may have
seemed, some comedians defended him for the simple reason that he is a comedian who was on a stage
telling a joke. Good or bad, sexist or not, hate-filled
or naive, it was a joke, told in a place for jokes.
Patton Oswalt, who admitted in an interview
with Entertainment Weekly
that he found what Tosh said
“despicable,” argued, “It’s very
It used
dangerous to create an atmoto feel like
sphere where people can’t fuck
we’re all
up onstage, and it costs them
in this dark
their life or career.”
club, and
Tosh, like Cook and Morwe’re all in
gan, apologized.
this together.”
While the debates these con— Susie Essman
troversies have generated could
be seen as positive, some feel
they undermine the creative process that gave us
voices like George Carlin and Richard Pryor.
“The sad thing, with all this taping and stuff, no
one’s going to do stand-up,” says Rock.
Comedian and director of The Aristocrats,
Paul Provenza explains what’s at stake for comics and audiences alike. “The tragedy here is
that artists (and yes, I consider comedians artists — some more gifted than others) are being
confronted for doing precisely what their function in society is, and has always been: challenge
authority, question prevailing attitudes and mores, and tap specifically into perspectives that
are not necessarily ‘acceptable’ to voice.”
Cook’s joke may have been “too soon,” and for
the majority of people it may never work. But it
wasn’t meant for the majority of people; it was
meant for a small group of people in a dark room
who were all “in it together.”
Which is probably why they laughed.
Amy Schumer
During the 2011 “Roast
of Charlie Sheen,” Amy
Schumer joked about
Steve-O’s recently
deceased friend Ryan
Dunn: “I know you must
have been thinking, ‘It
could have been me,’
and I know we were all
thinking, ‘Why wasn’t
it?’” Schumer did not
apologize for the joke.
Tracy Morgan
Tracy Morgan caused
an internet firestorm
last summer when he
launched into a rant
during a stand-up
show, saying he would
stab his son if he told
him he were gay and
didn’t come to him
“like a man” about it.
Morgan apologized for
his comments.