Dylan Ford - Censorship in the Comedy Industry - Portfolio Revised

There is a constant debate going on about whether or not comedians should be allowed to talk about certain subjects. Also if they are not allowed to talk about certain topics, where is the cutoff for things they can and cannot joke about. I personally do not think that comedians should be censored in what types of jokes they can tell.

People who are for comedian censorship do not believe that every subject is one that should be joked about. One of the reasons being that they feel like jokes on subjects such as rape are only told to reinforce the uneven power dynamics in our society. One reason they may feel that way is because rape is typically a man raping a woman, so if you talk about rape it is implied you are talking about a man abusing a woman.

One of the main points that the opposing side fails to take into account is that just because a comedian makes a joke about a certain topic doesn’t mean they are trying to oppress the people who are the subjects of the joke. Some comedians may even use humor as a tool for diffusing tension surrounding a situation, bringing light to a dark subject and making people more comfortable with that topic. The thing that matters is how the joke is said and the intent of the joke.

One comedian who uses humor to diffuse situations very effectively is Stephen Colbert. He manages to talk about a very serious issue going on in our country, making it seem like not such a harsh situation. This shows how you can't really tell if something is malicious without knowing the tone of what is said.

Stephen Colbert - Syria

People who disagree with the argument of censorship point to the fact that you can’t just censor people’s words because that encroaches on the comedians rights. What really has to happen is to censor purposefully oppressive speech and not just that topic in general.

Also people forget to mention that when you go to a comedy show you usually know what type of humor you are going to be hearing based on the comedian on stage. So if Pro-Censorship people believe that just because things are offensive means comedians cannot say them implying that comedians should change their performance based the audience. My suggestion to people who do not want to hear these jokes is to simply not go to those particular comedians shows.

One reason comedy is different than other genres such as T.V., Movies, etc. is that people who are going to these comedy shows are usually interested in the specific comedian on stage meaning they know the style of the comedian. This allows the comedians to be able to make fun of topics of choice without having to worry about whether or not his audience will be offended.

 If a joke is more slander than joke then that is when it should not be said. Once a joke is no longer a joke and it becomes intentionally hateful speech is when it is no longer protected by Freedom of Speech. Once this occurs is where we should draw the line between what is acceptable and what isn’t because this is when you are violating other people’s rights.

(not exact incident but same topic)

An example of where a comedian made a joke that offended an audience member would be Daniel Tosh’s joke about rape during a performance at The Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. He was talking about rape being funny and then a female audience member shouted out that "rape jokes are never funny" and then he is quoted as responding "Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by like, 5 guys right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her…".

This is where we do not know how Daniel Tosh said the joke meaning we don't know if he was trying to be offensive to the women actually wanting her to get raped or if he was just trying to use comedic relief to help diffuse the topic of rape and the situation at hand. This is evident in the comedians response to all the criticism towards the incident.

This shows that we cannot censor every topic that could be found as offensive because almost every topic that can be joked about could be found offensive in some way. We have to focus more on how it its said and the implications of the way it's said. This would allow comedic freedom but still make for an environment where the comedians cannot try and reinforce social stereotypes and prejudices.

This brings us to a larger issue that as a society we need to address the fact that some people are trying to censor the American people so that they don’t say things they “shouldn’t say”. When someone says something that offends other people or people don’t agree with them, they should have to live with the consequences of their words.

Just because their words have consequences don’t mean they should not be allowed to say what they want to say. We need to fight against the idea of controlling the public and becoming okay with the government controlling our lives and the way we should live them. If we let something like this happen where comedians cannot joke about certain subjects then what stops higher authorities from censoring whatever they want to. It could eventually become a dictatorship where nobody has the basic human rights that everyone deserves. We have to standup to censorship and to injustice to protect not just ourselves but future generations from being controlled.