Jerry Seinfeld mentioned how young people today are very PC and are afraid of offending anyone, and that several comedians gave up on working college campuses because of it.
So some college student writes an open letter discussing being PC and w/o any irony makes Seinfeld’s argument for him by basically saying it is only ok to be controversial when you do it to the right people in the right way for the right reason.
However part of me thinks the guy is trolling. A big reason is that did no one who proof read the article not think that the reaction would be negative? A 20 year old telling a 65 year old comedian how to do comedy, and who he is allowed to insult and how? He basically lived up to every stereotype of millennials w/o any irony or self awareness.
Also, the kid mentions Amy Schumer as an example of a comedian who is only controversial when making social commentary. Having seen Schumer’s comedy that is pretty much the opposite of her. Her entire shtick is to be controversial for its own sake (that and sex jokes). Louis CK, who is also mentioned does a bit of that too but nowhere near as much as Schumer. CK sometimes makes jokes about pedophilia just because he enjoys watching the audience cringe. His examples of comedians who engage in social commentary are two comedians who engage in controversy for its own sake.
So it makes me think the kid was actually trolling. If so, bravo. He conned Bill Maher and a bunch of other people. But maybe that is wishful thinking on my part.
I don’t really know or care. I only read the top half of the article, not really caring about whether some letter-writer approves of certain comedians or not. But this line of argument:
A big reason is that did no one who proof read the article not think that the reaction would be negative? A 20 year old telling a 65 year old comedian how to do comedy, and who he is allowed to insult and how? He basically lived up to every stereotype of millennials w/o any irony or self awareness.
does not convince me. Some people are simply clueless. All available evidence suggests that many of those currently attending America’s top colleges and universities are clueless. The author of this “open letter” may be one of them.
No, the kid isn’t trolling. He means it - that’s what makes it funny.
This kind of unintentional self-parody, where some kid responds to complaints about excessive political correctness with more political correctness, is better than any knock-knock joke.
I mean, we do live in a world where someone decided “homeless” was hurtful, and so it should be “unhoused,” and damn if I can see the difference between the two. And someone else decided “Latin” wasn’t OK, so we needed something unpronounceable to replace it, and even the Latinos seem to think that was dumb.
So, I guess, this 51 year old thinks Jerry is right. There’s a difference between good natured humor about things and being a dick. If you can’t see that difference, then I guess I’m unmoved.