Comment by nefitty | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nefitty | Hacker News Reader

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I can totally picture Anthony Jeselnik's first album Shakespeare causing a huge backlash these days. That album was released a few years ago, but the state of "offense sensitivity" is so heightened now that it would not have gotten him very far today. It's one of the greatest comedy albums of the last 15 years, but considering he's a white cis male, the amount of fire he would get today would be unbearable.

Let's see how some examples go down:

"People say it's easy to make fun of retarded people, but it's not. You really have to explain it to them."

"My great grandmother threw herself in front of a bus. The police tried to say she had committed suicide but the family knew she was just trying to stop civil rights."

"I’ve spent the past two years looking for my ex-girlfriend’s killer... but no one will do it."

http://scomedy.com/quotes/Anthony-Jeselnik

The last special he made, he bombed so hard I just stopped following him. It's just hard to find things funny when absolutely no one else is smirking...

>The last special he made, he bombed so hard I just stopped following him. It's just hard to find things funny when absolutely no one else is smirking...

I thought it was his best yet, but you touched on a good point: If his (or anyone else's) comedy isn't your style anymore, that's fine -- you just stop following/listening to them. If you're at a club, you get up quietly and leave. Maybe ask a manager for your money back if you feel you deserve it.

I'm not offended by it, and they are somewhat funny, but your examples just feel lazy to me. They're just very basic wordplay, and not particularly clever. I think there are a lot of comics who use offensive topics to spice up mediocre jokes, but adding an offensive element doesn't actually make the humor better. You might attract an audience because of the shock value, but I don't know that it's the sort of thing that's going to keep an audience long-term.

Nothing wrong with incorporating offensive subjects in comedy, but there needs to be more meat to it.

With Jeselnik it's all about the delivery and the persona he has. You're right, though -- it's classic misdirection which can be a bit cliche.

It's all about delivery. You can't read those jokes and get the same experience. I could read those lines on stage and no one would laugh at all. Anthony has great stage presence and his deadpan delivery really enhances his jokes.

> the state of "offense sensitivity" is so heightened now

Is it? This keeps being repeated, but I'm not seeing it in the general population. Sure, there are some loud people here and there, but overall it seems exaggerated to me. Of course, that's anecdotal, but still, I'm not buying it just yet.

In doing a quick search for research on the topic all I could find was an essay on why 2015 was the year of the SJW http://www.salon.com/2015/12/31/5_reasons_2015_was_the_year_...

I am aligned with the positions explored for the most part, but it seems like self-righteous offense inevitably emerges as a defense mechanism for these types of views.

Fake moral superiority for the purpose of subjugating others.

Some people value being 'right' more than they value being happy. Some have an agenda or hidden motivation to talk down to others.

As long as there's an advantage to be gained from it there will always be individuals who bully others. Old school bullying has been replaced with 'moral' grandstanding and public shaming.

We used to teach kids, "sticks and stones will break my bones but words can never hurt me." At some point, that tradition was abandoned and some individuals shifted to assume the stance of 'perpetually offended' so they have a justifiable platform to attack others.

On the other hand, that kind of outrage is my most reliable source for finding great comedians that I didn't know about.

Check out Kurt Metzger.

Also check out Stewart Lee.

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