Quote:First, there was the war on drugs. Then came the war on terrorism. Followed by the war on Christmas, women and religion. We seem to love waging wars.
And now a new war has broken out: the war on comedy.
This war started just a week ago by those defending Rush Limbaugh's infamous attack on Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown law school student who simply offered an opinion Limbaugh didn't like. So, Limbaugh being the "entertainer" that he is, responded by calling this young woman a "slut" and "prostitute."
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While I absolutely support freedom of speech, comedians deserve to suffer consequences if they make hateful jokes about race, ethnicity, gender, religion or sexual orientation.
However, comedians must be afforded great leeway when the joke is about a political issue. Lampooning people in power like our president, Congress and political candidates is nearly a cornerstone to our democracy. Even our libel laws provide a higher degree of protection for private citizens than for public figures.
American comedians have a proud tradition of raising awareness on important political and social issues. Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Chris Rock and, of course, Jon Stewart, do more than simply make people laugh -- their comedy can shape public opinion.
The standard for acceptable political comedy cannot be whether the joke offended someone. Political jokes will always offend someone since they are inherently divisive. The reason we tell these jokes is not only to get a laugh, but also to challenge people's views. (Here's a little secret: We comedians enjoy the fact we sometimes rankle those in the audience who disagree with our political jokes.)
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/17/opinion/obeidallah-comedy-war/index.html?hpt=hp_bn6
There has been a war on comedy for some time now, but it is interesting that this joker never noticed until his favorite form was under attack. Where he goes wrong is in condoning t-ing off on all those who point at truth that he finds offensive, IE race, ethnicity, gender, religion or sexual orientation truth that violates his utopian political ideology. You can not silence the truth tellers but then successfully make an exception for the sliver of truth that you happen to want told. The naivety here is amazing to behold.