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Aug 05 2020
Interactive Debate
Is there a limit to comedy?
In recent years, the treatment of comics who make outrageous or potentially offensive jokes has itself become a controversial topic. Outrageous jokes can be met with a social media storm condemning not only the joke, but the comedian who said it. Is there a line which comedians should not cross?
Kialo
Humor & Satire
Comedy Central
Learn the AllSides Media Bias Rating of Comedy Central. AllSides rates the media bias of hundreds of media outlets, journalists, and sources.
Oct 07 2019
Perspectives Blog
Leave Comedy Alone
Comedy’s recent return to the national spotlight — with new Netflix specials from Dave Chappelle and Bill Burr, and the oops-on-second-thought firing of recently-hired Saturday Night Live cast member Shane Gillis — has brought passionate attacks on offensive speech, sweeping defenses of free expression, and the prevalence of “cancel culture” to the forefront along with it.
I’m going to
Henry A. Brechter
Sep 18 2020
Opinion
The 2020 Election Offers Low Spirits and High Comedy
Anyone not already committed to a political hard line can’t get excited about either candidate.
How is it that in what has been called the most important presidential election in our nation’s recent history, I find myself viewing the candidates as essentially comic characters? The one man with his baroque hairdo, the other with his sad hair plugs; the one who speaks before he thinks,
Wall Street Journal (Opinion)
Aug 04 2020
Analysis
But is it art? Standup comedy and the quest for cultural credibility
Arts Council England (ACE) has recently taken the unprecedented step of including comedy as a form of theatre under the terms of the Culture Recovery Fund, part of the emergency response package to help cultural institutions recover from the blow they have taken during the pandemic. But the council has expressly stated on its website that this was mandated by the Department for Culture, Media
The Conversation
Aug 05 2020
Background
How comedy makes us better people
Maeve Higgins once set herself a task. The Irish-born comedian wanted to see what life would be like if she stopped laughing at things that weren’t funny. Turns out it wasn’t as easy as she thought. “It was so effing hard,” she says. “Laughter is a lubricant and is expected, and it’s really hard not to do it.”
It’s coming up for 11pm on a bone-chillingly cold Tuesday night in New York.
BBC News
Jan 01 2014
News
MSNBC uses Romney grandson in comedy segment
...toward the end of the segment, Harris-Perry pulled up a Romney family photo that included their recently adopted grandson Kieran Romney, who is black.
Politico
Dec 04 2021
Analysis
Pulling punchlines: Comedy can be offensive. But should it be reined in?
What makes something funny?
The question is as old as comedy itself. But answers have become increasingly fraught as America rethinks the way it talks about race, gender, and other sensitive topics. Cancel culture, it seems, is encroaching on comedy from both the left and the right.
To some comedians, the era of “wokeness” has become a new Puritanism. They find themselves on the
Christian Science Monitor
Nov 29 2021
Analysis
Pulling punchlines: Comedy can be offensive. But should it be reined in?
Stand-up comic Dan Crohn is telling a joke about the first time he flew Spirit Airlines. It’s Comedy Tuesday at Night Shift Brewing in Everett, Massachusetts. Standing on a spotlit stage, Mr. Crohn forms a wishbone with his arms – elbows lifted high and hands pressed together – as he holds the microphone.
“Imagine the Maury Povich show at 31,000 feet,” riffs the comedian. “The flight
Christian Science Monitor
Aug 10 2020
News
How two Nigerian women are breaking into comedy’s boys club
In a brightly colored sitting room somewhere in Nigeria, a couple and their teenage daughter are gathered comfortably in front of the television, watching a foreign film. Suddenly, the two characters on the screen kiss, and everyone freezes.
“Go inside!” shrieks the mother in panic, as her daughter scurries out of the room. For the next two minutes, the same scene plays out several
Christian Science Monitor