Numerous comedians have stopped performing at college campuses because they have found the students to be overly politically correct and overly sensitive to their jokes.
Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Billy Crystal and Larry the Cable Guy are a few who have stopped or limited taking campus gigs. This is just one sign that our society has become too sensitive and unable to “take a joke.”
Way back in 1993, Comedy Central introduced the talk show “Politically Incorrect,” hosted by Bill Maher. Four years later, the show crossed over to network television on ABC. Maher’s current show “Real Time with Bill Maher” may not be your cup of tea, but his show is important. We all have our own individual limits regarding comedy. Comedians can cross a line, especially with recent tragedy and death. I was never fond of comedians who made their reputations by insulting others, such as Don Rickles or Joan Rivers.
I taught high school and college in New York City, at a prep school in the Bronx, then at Queens College. Those are the most diverse ethnic communities in the country. New York City humor includes a fair amount of satire, sarcasm, more ethnic jokes and probably more trash talk. Some people would find that brand of humor, and New Yorkers, rude.
However, I sometimes find myself missing the candor, the back-and-forth repartee and the competitive element involved in attempting to outdo each other’s remarks. The humor also has a rapid pace that reminds me of the dialogue from an Aaron Sorkin play or film. This quick, witty style seems to be enhanced by the characters who are seemingly always on the move, walking as briskly as their mouths are moving. It also recalls old Frank Capra movies. Capra began his career as a comedy writer, and was ahead of his time in giving female characters comeback remarks that were just as witty – and more so – than their male counterparts.
When I moved to Colorado in 1983, it immediately became clear that I had to tone down the use of sarcasm in my teaching at Colorado College and Fort Lewis College. Early on, some of my humor was met with wounded looks from my students. I learned and adapted.
Can you imagine comedians of the past doing their bits today? George Carlin? Lenny Bruce? I sorely miss Richard Pryor. He was our best comedian at being able to get white people to laugh at themselves.
So many of us have turned to getting our news from John Stewart, Trevor Noah and Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee type shows. Perhaps this is because of our distrust of conventional news channels, but I think it is also due to our need for a laugh in these times. Otherwise, we would be crying.
I think The New York Times columnist Pamela Paul said it well in her recent column headlined “Political Correctness Used to Be Funny. Now It’s No Joke,” from June 2.
Paul wrote: “A world without making fun is a world with a lot less fun in it. It also misses out on the relief humor provides. The whole point of comedy is to poke us where it’s most uncomfortable, to get us to laugh at our foibles and excesses, and the self-seriousness alone of contemporary political correctness practically begs for satire.”
Laughter is still the best medicine and much cheaper than our health care system. Surround yourself with people with whom you share laughs. Oh, and did you hear the one about. . .?
Jim Cross is a retired Fort Lewis College professor and basketball coach.
