It’s not enough for today’s comedians to make people laugh. They must stay one step ahead of the woke mob or face the consequences.
It could mean losing the sitcom gig they dreamed about for decades, or it might result in decades of funny material being stained by one’s “thought crimes.”
The following comedians have avoided the woke mob’s wrath … so far. Still, given their bodies of work, that may not be the case for long.
Scratch a comic who lives on the satirical boundaries and you’ll find someone ripe for cancellation from the intolerant Left.
Howard Stern
The self-proclaimed King of All Media had a brush with the woke mob last year. A few of the radio giant’s racially charged bits “resurfaced,” and he had to confront a legacy which by any standard measure would end his career in a Thanos-like snap.
Stern didn’t back down, though. His reaction to the cultural moment proved defiant, as he told his listeners he’s a changed man who no longer traffics in that crude, offensive humor.
That’s adorable.
Context doesn’t matter to the woke mob. Nor does forgiveness or personal growth. So Stern got canceled, right? No. Not yet.
Stern’s vicious anti-Trump rhetoric last year bought him some time. The woke mob picks and chooses its victims with purpose. For them, Stern was a deeply flawed ally in the war to oust President Donald Trump from the White House. So they didn’t punish him for his past routines.
Yet.
Chances are they’ll circle back to him sooner or later. He’s not the raw, outspoken talker of yore, but he spits out politically incorrect bromides now and again. There’s a morsel of the old Howard Stern still in there.
The next time he shares a controversial take, assuming it clashes with far-left groupthink, the very mob that gave him a pass in 2020 likely won’t do the same again.
Judd Apatow
The man who gave us “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up” once ruled as Hollywood’s unofficial king of comedy. That status has taken a hit in recent years, in part because the director succumbed to Trump Derangement Syndrome. He’s more political now, more unhinged, like when he compared President Donald Trump to the Nazis.
He’s also not as consistently hilarious as he used to be. More recent Apatow films — think “Funny People” and last year’s “The King of Staten Island” (stolen by the great Bill Burr) — couldn’t measure up to his previous comic heights.
Still, Apatow has remained in Hollywood’s good graces … for now.
That might end should the woke mob, and its Tinsel Town enablers, give some of his best films a fresh look. Not only are the casts overwhelmingly white, male and straight, some jokes are decidedly unwoke. It’s bro humor, the kind that Apatow wouldn’t dare write today.
Take his “do you know how I know you’re gay” segment from “Virgin” as just one example of material that could lead to his cancellation.
Seth MacFarlane
This reporter previously shared how MacFarlane’s “Family Guy” features sequences that wouldn’t pass woke muster todav. It’s a primer on the show’s bawdy nature, but it hardly encompasses the show’s full comic spectrum.
Most “Family Guy” episodes traffic in rude, raw material, even if some jokes exist to reflect more recently approved takes. MacFarlane’s team mocks fat people, Jewish people, Asian-Americans and more. Even the family’s teen daughter, Meg, gets slammed for not being conventionally pretty.
It’s a show brimming with sharply thrown elbows, the kind of comedy that puts McFarlane on thin ice with the woke crowd. The show’s writing team leans to the left, though, routinely mocking religion and GOP targets like Donald Trump and the Second Amendment.
That affords the multi-talented MacFarlane some protection, but not enough should the mob come for his career scalp sooner or later.
Daniel Tosh
It’s always instructive when a take-no-prisoners comic takes a woke turn. It’s what we saw from Tosh during the recent, final season of Comedy Central’s “Tosh.0.” The fiercely funny comic started defending Black Lives Matter along with pushing other progressive-approved narratives.
Wait.
This is the same show that delivered some of the most bruising gags over the past decade, including a recurring segment called, “Is It Racist?” One such moment featured a black woman devouring a watermelon, the show’s way of celebrating Black History Month.
Other unwoke “Tosh.0” jokes include shaming less attractive women and playing fast and very loose with racial stereotypes.
Perhaps Tosh thinks the show’s woke turn might save him from the Cancel Culture club. And they could be right. If not, there’s an awful lot of “unacceptable” jokes told over the show’s run to put the lanky comic in Social Justice jail.
Mel Brooks
The comic genius behind “Young Frankenstein” and “The Producers” keeps telling us he couldn’t make his western satire “Blazing Saddles” today.
He’s right.
Yet he’s said it so often, and it’s been repeated by conservatives so long, that the woke mob wisely stays away from it.
For now.
Here’s betting the same mob may circle back to the movie at some point, especially if the left-leaning Brooks shares a point of view that collides with its groupthink. Or, as sad as it is to say, the 90-something Brooks passes on and can no longer defend his justly celebrated film work.
Chelsea Handler
You could argue Handler’s 180 degree comedy turn is a calculated attempt to keep the Cancel Culture kids at bay.
The comedienne forged her fame by playing up her sexually aggressive, drunken persona. Think books like, “Are You There, Vodka, It’s Me, Chelsea.” She was the beautiful wild child, and her jokes matched her shtick.
The election of Donald Trump transformed Handler into an “activist,” realigning her comedy material along the way. The newly woke comic begged us to forgive her “white privilege” and cheered new laws to restrict racism.
“2 Chinese guys were arrested in Berlin for making nazi salutes,” the “Chelsea” host said. “Wouldn’t it be nice 2 have laws here for people who think racism is funny?”
Unfortunately, she ignored her own checkered chuckles.
“This is my aunt, my cousin Ricky and I returning from our nazi genealogy hunt. We’re back.”
Here’s one more:
“Angelina Jolie has filed for divorce with Brad Pitt… He wants the China; she wants Pax and Maddox #sorrycouldnthelpmyself.”
She even used the Oscars ceremony honoring 2014’s “12 Years a Slave” to hawk her own comedy special.
“Congratulations #12yearsaslave Go to Africa or buy #ugandabekiddingme http://amzn.to/1de1ka9 #aheadofthecurve #Oscars.”
Handler’s real privilege is being liberal enough to escape her tawdry past.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.