Comedians reflect on old material, evolution, and accountability.
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Apologies, accountability, and assuaging feelings are for suckers.
Of course, not all comics hold this belief.
Weird Al Yankovic
I tend to go for what I consider family-friendly humor.
Theres nothing overtly sexual.
Its the kind of music that families can listen to on car trips and nobody gets too embarrassed.
I try my best not to offend.
It was not a kind word, but it was not a slur.
These days, I do not say that word.
And then we resumed playing and ended the song.
Language changes over time.
Some comics make it their thing never to apologize for anything.
And as we are seeing today, some politicians are the same.
If I feel like I did something that Im sorry for, of course Ill apologize.
I mean, we all make mistakes and sometimes I did things I shouldnt have done.
And sometimes you have to call yourself out on it.
Paul Scheer
I was performing at the UCB Theater in New York City when it first opened.
One of the things that UCB was really good at doing was teaching us to push limits.
There were shows that were set up there that were almost alienating to the audience.
After six or seven months, it became this competition between performers to see who could out-dirty each other.
It was next-level bad choices.
You couldnt even classify it as sketch comedy.
One of these shows was scheduled for the one-year anniversary of 9/11.
I was in New York City during 9/11 and incredibly affected by that.
That was the energy.
I wanted to reclaim it, but what I ended up doing was something in terrible taste.
I was in a suit that was incredibly tattered.
Then I was doing material.
Not even 9/11 material just really terrible material while my suit was still kind of smoking.
With these taboo subjects, I used to revel in going the distance.
When youre starting off as a comic, thats the instinct.
If I say something so shocking, then its like, Fuck them for not liking it!
Its a cheap way to rest the blame on the audience.
Its something everyone goes through in different parts of their life.
Were all gonna say stupid shit.
Were all gonna do stupid shit.
And you should make those mistakes.
But you oughta be able to own up to them honestly, too.
When you get a bit older, you realize you dont have to shock to be funny.
Im glad I was able to fail in the dark.
Sasheer Zamata
Years ago, I had a joke about how many white men I slept with.
So many white men been eating out of this pussy you could call it Hale & Hearty!
So many white men been beating up this pussy you could call it Rodney King!
The audience would tighten up even more today than they did years ago.
I also stopped telling the joke because I drastically decreased how much I talk about sex onstage.
I havent eliminated sex jokes completely, and I still enjoy hearing other peoples sex jokes.
I do think we should give people room to grow and change.
I wouldnt want people to judge my character on things Ive done and said ten years ago.
It was a riff, not necessarily the punchline, so I just kind of kept going.
Sometimes Im lazy like that.
I did this joke for almost a year.
He wasnt mad he made a joke about how great his blow jobs are.
But it sort of stuck with me for a moment.
It was very first-thought, no real joke-writing there.
It was such a minor moment but it drove me nuts for days.
Like I said, Im a very sensitive baby boy.
But my only sense of accountability as a comic is an artistic one: Am I being honest?
Am I making people laugh?
My sense of humanity and empathy generally tends to filter out bullshit before my artistic brain even starts up.
So the thing about the man with the braces he seemed fine.
But I weighed it in my brain and I just couldnt reconcile the balance.
Sometimes I dont think were really willing to do that math.
Is this joke worth being an asshole?
Sometimes it is, and in this case for me, it wasnt.
Cameron Esposito
I dont really look at it like regret or shame.
For instance: I used to talk about women getting periods.
I had this bit I did about how our body smashes our bodies out of our bodies.
It is not complicated or annoying to include that extra context.
The first part is for folks whose goal is to leave the world slightly better than you found it.
If thats you, challenge yourself to listen to audience feedback and do less harm.
Use current terminology or concepts because you care enough about stand-up to push the form forward.
Finally, if youre a cynic, remember this: 21 to 35-year-olds are your most likely live audience.
Those are the folks who buy tickets.
And the youth wants you to give a shit about racism, LGBTQ rights, feminism, etc.
If you dont give a shit about other people, evolve for your bank account.
I pitched that we introduce one, and that it should be a really bad, fake French accent.
I would say, Im not gay.
I know I have to say that in order for people to know it.
I regret telling it for so long.
I knew why people were laughing and Im responsible for that.
It wasnt until recently that I started to wonder, Yeeeeesh, what was I thinking?
Not to be all But I have a lot of gay friends!
Im straight, but my relationship to femininity felt like something I needed to explain to audiences.
Looking like a lesbian was the laziest possible take on a subject I should have had more respect for.
Accountability is hard and not fun.
But I can tell you a story I think about a lot.
Around this same time, I started getting into comedy.
I had always been a fan, but I was starting to perform and go to more shows.
I invited a friend to come with me to an improv show on campus.
My friend was Asian-American it was the same friend who had taken me to see that play.
The next thing I remember is my friend sobbing in the parking lot.
Frustrated, furious, sad.
Those two shows were connected.
The effect they had was connected.
Maybe thats why Ive never thought about political correctness in the way some comics do.
To me, its never been some hypothetical hand-wringing, or some competitive exercise in self-righteousness.
Wouldnt you want to avoid making people feel like that?
Especially at a comedy show?
I used to get onstage and say Rape?
I can barely keep it up for a woman whos into me.
Kind of like a low self-esteem Andrew Dice Clay routine.
Like, someone is too lazy and psychologically frail to commit to raping someone.
It worked because people used to laugh at rape jokes.
It doesnt work now because its a rape joke.
I was only doing it to shock and get attention.
Its not my view, and Im not trying to rattle people with comedy.
I want to see someone grow as a human and explore who they think they are with their comedy.
They got comfortable with how things used to be.
Comfort is a synonym for dry rot.
And Im sure the same will happen to some members of the PC scene as well.
Eventually the righteous platitudes some folks are passing off as comedy will come around on them just the same.
You still gotta have jokes.
But like, Im so gross and huge and ugly, and heres some jokes predicated on those generalities.
It truly had nothing to do with punchlines and everything to do with my very sick ego.
It was a full-on hostage situation.
Looking back now, I want to throttle myself.
Not just I hate my dumb bad body, okay?
Which honestly is something I would probably tweet.
But the only piece of comedy Ive made that I can recall feeling icky about is theWill SmithMoonlightcredits rap.
Its not even that good of a song!
I couldve justnotmade it.
Jake Flores
I recorded an album when I was, like, 27.
I was gearing up to move to New York and make it.
I mean,she, as an individual, was completely corncobs.
A lot of pop culture was very rewarding of that stuff.
I have no idea what kind of insane shit is cool to 22-year-olds right now.
You start lying to yourself and saying I meant to do this the whole time.
I take a stab at fight that.
You have to fight that impulse.
I stopped doing itbecauseit worked.
It was bumming me out that people liked it because I think they liked it for the wrong reason.
I think about that a lot in regards to Chappelle leaving Comedy Central.
Its a gross feeling realizing that a faceless mob is laughing out of sincere hate and not irony.
I also dont think the joke would work if I tried to do it today.
After you understand why something sucks, its hard to sell it.
Should we hold comedians accountable for their jokes?
This is kind of a hot take: No.
People have gone completely bananas with what they consider the role of art and culture to be.
I think this is because of Trump.
Its resulting in lame jokes.
Or at least its notonlysupposed to do that.
I dont like my old jokes about women not because they were offensive, but because of the subtext.
What wasactuallybeing said was kind of bad.
I had to grow to get where I am now.
It wouldnt have happened if I was just, like, fired from art.
Im half Pakistani, half Swiss … Im Piss!
Its wild to think how much both comedy and me have evolved since then.
Its sad and weird and self-hating and truly not the way I feel at all.
I guess thats kind of under the hood of the joke: Im brown!
But guess what, Im white too!
And thats the real me.
So, the joke still has a demo.
Its fearful and its lazy.
No one is entitled to their dream job.
If youre a really great comedian, your audience will follow you no matter what.
Patton Oswalt
When youre young, youre insecure.
Youre not comfortable enough in making fun of yourself yet.
Youre already terrified of being onstage.
There was a lot in my early bits where I was targeting someone else when things werent going well.
My targets were off.
I wasnt even doing specific bits.
Especially those ones where I love cursing.
Its more of the overall insecurity.
Are there gay retarded people?
If so, wheres their march?
They should be allowed to have a march!
When I look back at the bit, its just lazy.
Im trying to say the word retard and get that easy laugh.
Im rarely embarrassed by anything offensive I do, but Im very embarrassed when Ive done something lazy.
It would be good to demystify a lot of what comedy is.
Like, we arent these infallible joke machines.
Were humans trying to wrestle with the world.
But there is all kinds of shit that Im not a fan of.
Its way more alpha to listen to your critics and say, Shit, youre right.
I fucked that one up.
Nothing ever stays the same, especially if youre in the creative business.
You either accept that and evolve, or you die.
That was something Im glad I came out the other end of.
I am willing to change and grow.
If you want see what a long and active career looks like, look at John Waters.
He was all shock value coming up.
Then he got to an age where he realized, Oh, my stuffs not shocking anymore.
Im gonna be Americas beloved uncle now.
Literally.Pink Flamingosended with Divine eating dog shit.
Then theres a shit-drinking joke in the first 20 minutes ofAustin Powers.
Its just unbecoming to be the 50-year-old trying to shock people like theyre 19.
Get out of the way and let the younger generation come up and shock people for a while.
