As a rule, I cut comedians more slack than than I do other folk, as being somewhat offensive is part of their job description. It wasn’t a good moment for Trevor though.
In other news, there has been a rash of tasteless jokes resurfaced from years ago. Kevin Drum explains why: [INDENT] These kinds of tweets don’t just “resurface.” Some actual person with an axe to grind spends hours or weeks plowing through old archives in order to find ancient material like this. Even when it’s obviously a joke—tasteless but still a joke—they know that it might damage the target’s career.
Why bother? Not because anyone cares about these specific people. They’re discovered at random, after all. The reason is so that genuinely hateful tweets and social media posts from neo-Nazis and white nationalists can be played down when they’re discovered. After all, “everyone does it,” right? [/INDENT] With that in mind, I’d advise my readers to distinguish between patterns and isolated incidents, and between misfired comedic routines and weaponized humor as a method of pushing vile ideas.