MSNBC hearts Sarah Silverman.
Not only does the stand-up comedienne lean aggressively to the Left, she also apologizes for past jokes that may have hurt someone’s feelings.
That’s a twofer for a news network yet to apologize for promoting the Russian collusion hoax for multiple years.
Now, MSNBC.com is using the arrival of Silverman’s new Max comedy special, “Someone You Love,” to lecture us about Humor, Inc.
Silverman once shot from the comedic hip, slaying audiences with her raw humor. Now, she toes the woke line, avoiding all the off-limit targets but excoriating the Right early and often. She brags she’s free from Cancel Culture’s grip, but when a comic follows all the approved narratives you know the mob won’t come their way.
The MSNBC op-ed shifts from Silverman to the “new” comedy rules, because there’s nothing that inspires great humor like creative guidelines.
The author, MSNBC columnist Jacques Berlinerblau, is such a whiz at analyzing comedy that he isn’t sure Cancel Culture exists in the space.
Here’s a pro tip: It does, and the examples are endless.
Later, Berlinerblau argues comedians must always punch up, not down (a comedy saw that gets shoved aside if the people in the latter category are conservatives or Christians).
The worst part is yet to come.
Berlinerblau advises comedians to self-censor, which is another way to promote censorship.
Free speech purists and libertarians might respond to this five-step program by fulminating: Voluntary self-censorship! Slippery slope! Isn’t art about liberty, man?
Maybe, man. But perhaps comedians ought temporarily ease off the un-nuanced — and even Silverman’s more nuanced — punch down shtick. Just for now. Just until America divests itself of irrational hatreds and inequality in like a half century. Or half a millennia. Or whenever the Messiah comes.
Dern those free speech purists! What do they know about humor, right? George Carlin clearly knew less than Berlinerblau, by all accounts.
So did Lenny Bruce.
Thankfully, MSNBC has saved both comedy and sanity by giving us the proper guide rules for humor moving forward. Let’s hope Hannah Gadsby gives this op-ed a long, thoughtful look and changes her act accordingly.