Yet another former “not yet ready for primetime player” is warning of the damage cancel culture is doing to comedy. In an interview with Fox News published Tuesday, Chris Kattan, who starred on “Saturday Night Live” from 1996 to 2011, said, “The reality is that right now, everyone has to be careful about what they say or do.” He later added, “If you want to do something funny, you can’t be outrageous anymore. You do have to be careful …”
Kattan is hardly the first SNL alum worrying about cancel culture. As The Daily Wire previously reported, David Spade commented on the subject in August, saying, “You used to have to say anything to go as far as you could, to push the envelope, to get attention, and people would be like, ‘I like this guy. He’s pushing it.’ And in comedy clubs, audiences really appreciate that … Now you say the one wrong move and you’re canceled. It’s a very tough world out there.”
Spade’s castmate Rob Schneider has blasted the trend as well. When SNL fired newly-hired cast member Shane Gillis over past jokes considered anti-Asian, the “Deuce Bigelow” star posted this message to the younger comedian on Twitter: “As a former SNL cast member I am sorry that you had the misfortune of being a cast member during this era of cultural unforgiveness where comedic misfires are subject to the intolerable inquisition of those who never risked bombing on stage themselves.”
He added: “An honest, sincere apology and also accepting it seems appropriate as well. Destroying someone does not.”
The late, great Norm Macdonald joined Schneider in expressing regret to Gillis. “Hey, Shane, I’m so sorry. I can’t even imagine how you must feel,” he said when the incident was making headlines. “The work it takes to get that show and to have it snatched away by some guy who does ‘Spoken Bird’ poetry,” he added, referring to Seth Simons, the journalist who posted past jokes from Gillis that sparked the outrage campaign.
Along with Kattan, Schneider, Spade, and Macdonald, a host of other one-time SNL stars have lamented the damage woke mobs who demand comedians only tell jokes they find inoffensive are doing to the comedy business. Dennis Miller, Dana Carvey, Joe Piscopo, Billy Crystal, Colin Quinn, Jon Lovitz, and Victoria Jackson have all sounded off on the subject.
Lovitz, in particular, has pulled no punches in his criticism. “I’ll just say it, it’s no different than McCarthyism,” he told the New York Post in June, continuing, “As soon as you say to a comedian like me, ‘You can’t say that,’ the first thing in my head is, ‘Oh, and now I have to,’” he joked.
The 64-year-old comedy veteran concluded: “If you don’t have the ability to laugh at yourself, don’t go to a comedy club. I’m not changing my act. If you’re watching TV and you don’t like the show, change the channel. It’s very simple.”