Comedy Killed

In many ways, political correctness has put a boot on the throat of comedy. The PC Movement has sapped the life out of our ability to laugh at ourselves…and that is a terrible loss, in my estimation.

To back up my argument, I point to two giants in comedy----Mel Brooks and Carol Burnett.

Brooks recently told an interviewer for the BBC that political correctness is so pervasive that it has an influence on what we wear…what we eat….what we can celebrate…and it has even changed the way we teach history to our children.

Brooks, the guy who brought a film called “Blazing Saddles” to the screen in 1974, admits that its theme of racial prejudice would not make it to the screen in 2019. Brooks says sensitivity to the feelings of others is a good thing…however…he also hints that obliterating humor due to over sensitivity is unhealthy.

We live in a multi-cultural society. All of us have our own heritages—whether it be Anglo-Saxon, African American, Asian, Hispanic----we have traits and practices that identify us. And what Brooks and other comedians are saying is…those traits are funny. That’s humor as we once knew it….and it is dying.

Carol Burnett says the PC rut keeps us from thinking creatively.  She says locker room jokes of the teenage boy genre have taken its place making comedy crude and downright boring.

Can you make fun of yourself? Do you find humor in who you are and what you do? 

If the answer to those questions is yes----then you likely agree. We need to be less PC.