Dear Reader,
I bet you thought I was done. I bet you thought I had abandoned you, that I no longer cared about writing or art or self-expression. I bet you thought I had given up.
Naaaaa I doubt you gave two sh!ts, I'm sure you got your own thaaang going on. You do you, I'll do me. Anyways I've been getting a ton of writing done on a new project after I finished a little novellette. I'm thinking of self publishing it, because who the hell publishes novellettes anymore amiright? Anyways I'm really excited about my new project so I've been barraling into it headlong and not giving a Fluuuuck about you or any of my other projects for that matter. Plus I figured that absence makes the heart grow stronger, so it will really improve our sex life (you know, depraved butt stuff, that type of thing). Okay gross. Moving on.
So much has happened since I last wrote to you. I'm working at a Theater here in the cozy little Berkshires, I feel like I might have already told you that, however. I've also joined the gym again and have to say, I haven't felt this physically fit and energetic and motivated since I was in college and used to wake up at 7:30 to meet with a friend of mine. The colloquial wisdom offered by so many before me has it right: wake up early, make your bed, eat something (ANYTHING. I can't tell you how long I've been opposed to breakfast, my stomach never never is in the mood for it) and then get in some exercise to start your day. I don't know if you know this but I was born with a very serious heart condition. Anyways I'm lucky to be here and lucky to have a family willing to have done everything they could for me so that I might grow and flourish.
Well, I'm 27 now (had a birthday since I last wrote in this thing) and realized that if I don't get in shape now, I'll be setting the course for a nice little heart attack at 55 and I don't want that -- I have so much to accomplish that I need to keep this thing ticking! So yeah, I'm looking dead sexy and getting more writing done than I have in some time and making good money. It's about damn time.
Enough pleasantries though, lets talk about some social issues and get our hands dirty with some polarizing opinions and condescending rants!
Stand-Up comedy. I'm a huge fan of stand-up mainly because I consider myself witty and disgusting enough to have dreamed about doing it. However, like 99% of us, I'm a coward and (even though I went to school for performing) am deathly afraid of not having my material enjoyed. This, I feel to be a normal challenge that any human faces who thinks about any number of public speaking ventures: giving speeches, etc. Anyway It's one of my (personally) highest respected art forms.
Let's be clear about something. There IS a line when it comes to comedy, and that line is always subjective. What offends you may not offend me and vice-versa. But we must uphold and protect the FREEDOM to offend. The best of the best of stand-up comedians, through anecdotes, through metaphor and ironic happenstance, through the formulaic setup up, false end, awkward pause, and gut-busting punch line, are crafting... what again class? Oh yes, JOKES. These are not vindictive pathologies and manifesto-type calls to arms, these are human thoughts, observations and insecurities being unravelled and exposed in sometimes eloquent, sometimes crass manners.
Recently there has been controversy over some Stand-Up specials and normally I just let people have their dumb fucking hyper-sensitive opinions about things, but you've come after some of my heroes with your trite, psedo-intellectual checklist of social conformity. Just keep moving the goal posts over until nobody can joke about anything except what their vagina smells like and why they have a problem with Trump. As if it's some BRAVE fucking stance to take up in telling everybody that you don't like the current Asshat-in-Chief. Kill me now, I'm fed up with this culture. And we won't learn. We won't grow up. We won't accept that freedom of expression is meant for EVERYONE and not just people that align with our liberal values or our christian values or whatever the fuck people want to preach about. Go sort your shit out and then come back and join the rest of us adults who just want to take the piss out of life's brevity before we check out.
I'm certainly not the first to say that there is an epidemic of professionally offended sycophants and "bigoteers" out there, and while they have the right to criticize, their opinions have become so militant and off the deep end, it's no longer a surprise to me why so many people reject the idea of the "modern progressive." You're all in a fucking cult, that's why, and I'm thankful every day that their are still people out there who laugh at you. Unfortunately though, there are also people that take your unending, predictable hyperbolic noise as a threat, and believe it or not don't like being told what and how to think and feel and take offense to and believe in and vote for. So they vote against the candidate that they feel represents this type of thought-policing, this type of malignant political correctness. Call it paranoia call it ignorant and uneducated, call it whatever you need to make yourself feel better, or validate your sanctimoniousness, but we supposedly live in a sovereign nation, and people don't like being labelled an enemy simply because they won't fall in line with your hyper-sensitive histrionics. Gee, and we wonder why we lost the house, senate and presidency to a gang of milk-toast cartoon villains. We're tearing down even our own ALLIES who dare step out of line with a thought that makes us have to use our brains for a second, and we treat stand-up comics as though they are up on stage running for office. I understand that it's confusing because our politics have become some sort of hollowed-out game show, but comedians are here to entertain, and politicians are here to lead... not vice-versa!
Let's take Dave Chappelle's recently released Netflix Specials.
Dave took something like a "12 year hiatus from comedy," to do human things such as have a family, and live in a quietly quaint progressive mountain town where people didn't relentlessly run up to him shouting "Y'all got any of that crack cocaine?" and "I'M RICK JAMES, BITCHHH!" Anyways he came back with a bang and made a deal with Netflix to do three comedy specials for 60 million dollars. That's $20,000,000 an hour for anyone counting with a bitter taste in their mouth because you (like me) have to check your bank account to make sure you can afford to get a soda with your popcorn at the movies. "Well I got paid this morning, but this has to last me two weeks and I think my car insurance is due this pay period and fuck, my loans too... dammit! Screw this, I should have just stayed home and watched Dave Chappelle's comedy specials." Meanwhile your date is staring at you because you've been speaking out loud this entire time.
I digress. Chappelle came under fire from a lot of... shall we say... darlings... out of some particularly sensitive and historically disenfranchised communities. Of note, Chappelle taking a glib view of how his wife's gay friends are always on about some cause (taking the words "husband and wife" out of marriage certificates, a pretty sensible thing considering the state of marriage equality) and his JOKE is to say "listen, take it from someone who's been there and SLOW DOWN. Just figure out which one of you is gayer, and that's the wife!" This joke is well crafted, but I shouldn't have to defend it. Chappelle is a man who brought more conversation, change, and progress to this country (racially speaking) than any uptight columnist's predictably offended rhetoric could dream of achieving. My advise, I'm talking to my circle of "socially-concious"(hyper aware and overly critical) liberal friends now, is to let the little fish go so that we can save our strength for the big fish.We may just bring the average voter back to our side. People will come around. Progress takes time. Stop being intolerable, white-knight narcissists. Dave Chappelle, of all people, is not the enemy, he's just having a go at people in general that drag their politics around with them everywhere they go, it's just that in this instance, it happens to be a conversation with a gay person.
The frustrating part, I find, in so many of these criticisms of Chappelle and countless other comedians, is that they are ironically riddled with pathological identity politics and a constant call to a victimhood hierarchy. "Straight black man" "Cisgendered" "older generation" are among the labeled hurled out at Dave to relay to you the idea that he's in a position of power, and therefore isn't "woke" if he decides to make insensitive observations about things. Rarely though, is he labelled "Comedian," I've noticed, a rather important detail considering. The best of the irony though, and I'll use a rubric from Chris rock, who once famously said "I love black people man, but I hate n*ggas," is to talk about what they do, not who they are. This is exactly the kind of quintessential law that Chappelle follows in his comedy, and exactly what these critiques DON'T do. Chappelle uses specific examples about how his friends can sometimes act ridiculous, he crafts jokes riddled with irony and astute observations on the absurdity of some particular people in some particular communities.
"I know hard n*ggas from Brooklyn that walk around in heals just to get passed over by the cops."
"It turns out that the Q in LGBTQ means questioning, it's for gay dudes that don't really know they're gay. You know. Like prison f@gs."
The criticisms of these jokes mostly come from activist pseudo-celebs whose only platform has risen out of thought policing, and assuming that anyone from any historically or otherwise disenfranchised communities must not have senses of humors, and they get to deem what "punching up" means in a worldly context, despite never having tried to make people laugh for a living. Never having to try and please millions and millions of people all at once.
So instead of dissecting why the jokes don't work ( perhaps because they DOo, Davie??) He is met, again, with boring, character-assassinating labels like "privileged" and "out of touch," that might as well just say "he's rich and old so his opinion and humanity is lesser of value now."
There are a lot of things I can't stand about the condemnation of humor, but the terms "privileged," and "out of touch" are the most blatant attempts to misrepresent someone that I can think of. Having hypothetical privilege DOES have some context into your socioeconomic existence, but when it comes to criticizing art, this vague, abstract concept of privilege has no f@cking place in a conceptual critique of someone's work. Criticize the content, don't throw out some ad hominem bullsh!t just because YOU and your stupid, stuck-up friends don't find something funny. Or, to repeat Chris Rock, Talk about what they do, not who they are. Your political, sexual, racial identity should have no bearings onto the content you create, and by labeling a successful black man privileged, you are subtly implying that success is nothing to emulate, and it's something that should not be aspired to.
I find the same problem with the label "out of touch." This, again, subtly applying that being older means you no longer have a valid opinion. As if to imply that once a person turns 40, they lose the right to be relevant, and should be dragged outside like the useless animal they are and be put down. As though him leaving Hollywood to raise a family in Cincinnati is the same as him wandering around aimlessly in the mountains for 12 years. They don't have phones and the internet in Cincinnati? They don't have social issues in Cincinnati? This Bullsh!t rhetoric (typical of the left, sorry but it's true) is the same type of myopic rhetoric that disenfranchises voters because you sound like a patronizing @ssbag when you tell someone they are "out of touch" because they disagree with your politics. There are bigger battles to be fought than swooning over a "transphobic" joke. When you attempt to present jokes as statements, you are walking into dangerous territory.
Let's talk about a context where another "joke" from (again) a comedian got gobbled up. In this instance we deal with a slightly more outraged reaction and even a backlash and apology: Bill Maher said n*gga in an interview.
Interviewer: You aught to come work in the fields with us some time, Bill.
Bill: Wooo work in the fields? Hey, I'm a house n*gga!
Now, I'm not personally offended by this, not just because I'm white, but because I don't virtue signal. There were plenty of (black ) professionals coming out in Maher's defense saying that they weren't offended BUT there were plenty who were. Let's be clear, the people in the black community who were offended by Maher's flippant use of a racial slur to refer to himself as a slave, have every right to be upset, even angry. This, ladies and gentlemen, is THE LINE, from which I mentioned earlier. Comedy is about finding the line, drawing attention to the line, dry humping it a bit, and easing people into not minding whether or not you cross it. My comments, of course, being hindsight, but much of why this joke isn't funny, to be honest, comes from the setup and delivery of the joke itself. It was crass, grating, and had no sense of humor behind it other than to say "Hey, blacks were slaves once, remember!" Yeah it was just a lame joke, and that I think is why the witch hunt was so easily justified. White liberal comedians have used the N word before, they'll do it again... but in the context of the interview, in the context of the joke... it just didn't get a laugh. (For examples of other jokes that don't get laughs that aren't equipped with dangerous racial slurs, see: any monologue from Late Night with Jimmy Fallen)
This joke of course brought up the ever tired conversation of "Who is allowed to say what words." Are there some groups of people who should just never use a particular word ever, no questions asked? Or should we all just stop giving such atomic power to language and just let people express themselves the way they want. Well, the answer is both, really. Nobody should dictate what words we are allowed to use, but we should also be weary of our history, our current climate, our open wounds that still persist in some communities, and the platform to which we are speaking from. I can't imagine a context where any of us would HAVE to spout out a racial slur unless in some malevolent meeting with a bunch of other bigots, BUT most of us would, I think be a bit miffed if there was some legislation passed preventing certain groups of people from using certain words. No. Just have tact with your jokes, and be polite in public. In Maher's case, of course, like Chappelle, he is seeking for any and all opportunities to get a laugh, a groan, a chuckle, and it isn't as if he were attacking and referencing a particular person (other than his own white @ss) so I understand that the issue needed to be dealt with, but ultimately, the actual act was harmless other than in hypothetical context. Being humorous and edgy while also being respectfully polite and empathetic to every intersectional social group is impossible and you will always offend someone, but at the expense of a damn good joke, it's always worth offending. But, to reference Dave Chappelle, which is how I got on this tangent in the first place..."It takes more than a word to break the modern black man." All that being said, Maher, we all make mistakes, and I feel (though my opinion means d!ck in this sort of conversation) it was good that he apologized for his off-the-cuff slur.
For references to Whites using the N word with care, context, and brilliant humor, see Louis CK's rant on white lady reporters inceptioning his brain when they say "the N word" when he really knows them to be saying N*gger. "Don't hide behind the first letter like a F@ggot, just say N*gger you stupid c@nt. You're making me say it!" Or when Randy Marsh on South Park is given N_GGERS on a wheel of fortune game with the hint "people who annoy you." He doesn't guess the correct word, which is naggers. These two examples of racial slur wordplay are cutting and smart and absolutely hysterical. (For references on whites using the N word without care, context or brilliant humor, see Micheal Richard's ranting buffoonery during a laugh factory special.) "All I think of now when I see this sign is Micheal Richards f@ckin' up" says Dave Chappelle when he did the laugh factory.
Speaking of Comedians f@cking up, Kathy Griffin made headlines for holding up a bloodied head of Trump. This is another instance of crossing the line. What are you saying with this piece? You want to behead the president? Oh, okay, that won't get you in trouble at all. Good for you Kathy. I mean sure, express your distaste for the man, he's an uninspiring maggot with an IQ as low as his approval rating, that's for sure, but AGAIN, there is a line in (comedy? Terrible modern art? Photography?) And you cross it when you appear to threaten the most power man in the world's life. Now let's be clear, like Maher, like Chappelle, I'm all for Kathy to have freedom of expression, but in this climate, there are consequences.
Now, for those of you ready to point out that Griffin, a woman, suffered far more consequences as a woman, than did Chappelle and Maher, both men, you are grossly over simplifying the situation.
A. She will lose her new years gig and some other endorsements because she works for networks that depend on viewership. Maher and Chappelle made deals with companies that depend on subscribers only.
B. Maher and Chappelle made not-threatening jokes and references to large GROUPS of hypothetical people with anecdotes, Kathy plastered a direct quote from a single, specific person, the president, while holding a mangled sculpture of his head
Did I get a chuckle out of every single one of these Comedian's self expression? You bet. Was there clear differences in the levels to which they each provoked responses? You bet. Do I respect the hell out of anyone brave enough to speak their mind and try to make light, or bring attention to something that is on their mind. You f@cking bet I do.
That being said, You don't get to spout off opinions, however well crafted or crude, without pissing people off... so is that the point? That there will always be people getting offended by brash commentators? And that there will always be people ready to provoke the hyper-sensitive? Am I just projecting my fear of expression onto these comedians who, let's be honest, probably get off on the controversy surrounding their work? Maybe the world is too small now, and maybe too many opinions can be a bad thing, or maybe EVERYONE, comedians, audiences, critiques, BLOGGERS who, at this point have probably gone on way too long, ALL just need to let the little fish go. Everyone just have a laugh and stop taking themselves too seriously. I think that's the answer, dear reader.
Peace for now, it's good to be back.
-CjM
Oh ps. I'm done with political tirades because they exhaust me. I'm going to make predictions for the upcoming GOT season and then subsequently REVIEW EACH EPISODE OF SEASON ON HERE WoOOOoOOo!! So until next time, dear reader. I'm out!
