Julia Louis-Dreyfus says comedians complaining about political correctness is a 'red flag': 'I believe being aware of certain sensitivities is not a bad thing.'
I think the other problem is the way humor changes over time. A comedian that did well a decade ago might not do so well now if they don’t keep up with peoples’ tastes. This is where I’ve seen some of the big names start to lose their following.
Bigoted jokes were never funny, they’re just pandering to the privileged group by punching down at and bullying those outside of it, it’s always been lazy and uncreative (aka “edgy”) “comedians” who resort to it, and that’s why they’re “less popular” now - because when you take the bigotry away, there’s nothing else left.
Unfortunately their privileged and entitled target audience is still large enough (and the interests of those in power to keep society divided strong enough) that they’re not “less popular” at all, the opposite in fact - they’re given netflix specials and continue to have massive platforms to spew their bigotry from despite being desperately unfunny, because it was never about the humour, and always about the spreading of hate and division towards marginalised groups.
Edit: this whole thing reminded me of this Alex Norris comic strip
I think the other problem is the way humor changes over time. A comedian that did well a decade ago might not do so well now if they don’t keep up with peoples’ tastes. This is where I’ve seen some of the big names start to lose their following.
Humour hasn’t changed.
Bigoted jokes were never funny, they’re just pandering to the privileged group by punching down at and bullying those outside of it, it’s always been lazy and uncreative (aka “edgy”) “comedians” who resort to it, and that’s why they’re “less popular” now - because when you take the bigotry away, there’s nothing else left.
Unfortunately their privileged and entitled target audience is still large enough (and the interests of those in power to keep society divided strong enough) that they’re not “less popular” at all, the opposite in fact - they’re given netflix specials and continue to have massive platforms to spew their bigotry from despite being desperately unfunny, because it was never about the humour, and always about the spreading of hate and division towards marginalised groups.
Edit: this whole thing reminded me of this Alex Norris comic strip