Why Can't Comedians Be Funny Anymore?

In the last week, we have seen two comedians apologize for telling jokes.  The first was Gilbert Gottfried.  He tweeted some harsh jokes about Japan from his Twitter account.  One read, "Japan is really advanced. They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them." while a second read, "Japan called me. They said "maybe those jokes are a hit in the US, but over here, they're all sinking."  The latter I see as his attempt to acknowledge that he knew his jokes were going a bit over the line but in a funny way instead of an apologetic way.

When did we get to the point where comedians have to apologize?  I am not condoning what Gilbert said, but he's a shock comedian, and you know that that is what you get with him.  We've seen him do this for years.  He has been invited to so many roasts of other celebrities over the years for THAT reason.  He's hilarious, and more so when he says something outrageous.  

At the Roast of Hugh Hefner in 2001, he told a 9/11 joke.  He got booed and responded by telling the famous Aristocrats joke.  If you are unfamiliar with this joke, you discuss a rich family doing the most insane, crude, sexually explicit, craziest things you can, until the audience is thoroughly uncomfortable and then hit them with a punchline.

 Fired? Seriously, I Have Said Crazy Stuff Before

After his Japan tweets, he was fired as the voice of the iconic AFLAC duck.  AFLAC fired him because of the tweets and said Gilbert's thoughts and ideas did not match their own and even went further to say that his tweets were not funny.  Gilbert then issued an apology a little while later.  AFLAC had employed Gottfried since 2000.  So by firing him now, we get the clear message from AFLAC: Telling jokes about 9/11, those are ok.  Telling jokes about Japanese Tsunami victims?  Not ok.  How hypocritical of them.  They have issued a nation wide casting call for a replacement.  Do we really want anyone else playing the AFLAC Duck?

Next up on this week's apologetic comedian list is George Lopez.  He was joking about the B-list stars on Dancing With The Stars.  He made a stripper joke about Kendra, he made a "your a man" joke about Wendy Williams, he said Ralph Macchio wore a toupee, and he made a joke that Kirstie Alley was fat.

Only Kirstie took offense and blasted him for his joke.  He then apologized, but why?  Why would you apologize about making a Kirstie Alley fat joke?  Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and several other comedians have made the same jokes!  The video of what Lopez said about Kirstie Alley can be seen here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/23/george-lopez-on-kirstie-alley-pig-dwts_n_839753.html 

Jimmy Fallon has a bit on his show where he picks three people out of the audience to throw hot dogs in a celebrity cutouts' mouth, the most in wins a prize.  The one time I saw that game, Kirstie Alley was a cutout.  Clearly, her weight has not been off limits as a joke, and it shouldn't be.  She even had a show called Kirstie Alley's Big Life, in which she showed her daily life while on a diet to lose the weight she gained back after getting off the Jenny Craig program.

 I Am Not Even The One Who Drew This Arrow

Kirstie Alley shot back at George Lopez, saying that he hates women and should give back the kidney that was given to him by his ex-wife.  I don't really care what she had to say about this matter, but the fact that she went to a level of her own shows her hypocrisy.  She also made jokes about the situation on Twitter, so if she can joke about the joke, then the original joke stands.

Kirstie Alley is a former(?) coke abuser who is a fat, twice divorced Scientologist.  If she is off limits, that's just not fair to comedians.  Nobody who's a celebrity should be off limits in my opinion.  If you're on tv, in movies or any other kind of famous entertainer, comedians should always have free range on you.  People should really learn to laugh at themselves a little more, and take themselves less seriously.

Comedians shouldn't have to apologize for their jokes.  Whether a joke is crude and outrageous about a disaster or really goes over whatever imaginary line exists around a person, you shouldn't have to apologize for your opinion, especially as a comedian.  Yes, it's ok for the audience to boo, but in the case of George Lopez, his audience laughed hysterically when he showed that Geico commercial of the pig hanging it's head out the window.  Clearly his intended audience was his live audience, and they gave their laughs of approval.  End of story.

Do you think George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Andrew Dice Clay, Red Foxx or any other shock comedians have apologized for any of their jokes in their career?  These guys take a mic, and they go up there and they blast all kinds of people, groups and ideas, and they don't care how controversial it is.  They shouldn't care, because it is their job to entertain, and to get laughs.  There will always be someone who steps up to any comedian and says they crossed a line with them personally, and comedians can't be apologetic about it.  

The comedian is better when the comedian has free range.  I would say outside of outright racism for no reason, there aren't any other lines that shouldn't be crossed or at least toed.  Comedy is much better when the comedians are thinking less about how they're offending and more about who they're making laugh.  So stop apologizing, and keep telling jokes.  If we can learn to laugh at ourselves, we're all better people for it.

And Really, Who Can Hate On A Guy Who Can Make Seagulls Laugh???