Comedy Writer Says Modern Stand-Ups That Bitch About PC Audiences Are Wimps
Kliph Nesteroff, a widely respected writer known for his expertise as a comedy and pop culture historian and academic, gave VICE his take on the Jerry Seinfeld comments on PC audiences today, and it came down to this. People who complain about PC audiences should shut up.
“Nobody is being blacklisted in comedy,” he told VICE. “Show business is so atomized that even if you were blacklisted, say, from the major networks, there’s enough comedy fans who aren’t watching the major networks that you can still find your audience with your podcast or your YouTube channel or whatever. So even if somebody’s platform is being violated, they can easily find another platform and their audience will follow them. It was much more difficult several years ago or several decades ago.”
Nesteroff acknowledged Lenny Bruce, who was famously arrested and jailed for obscenity after cursing in his nightclub acts. Yet he said that Lenny is simply the most famous example. Comedians faced such punishment often.
He relayed the story of George Hopkins, a California comedian who was arrested in 1961 after one of his shows. The arrest was a citizen’s arrest by one audience member who found the material offensive. He called the police, who promptly locked up Hopkins in jail for two nights. He also talked about Philly comedian named Marty Wayne, who was arrested for obscenity. After a Pennsylvania judge had Wayne’s act recited to him, he ruled that the material that contained obscenities was “an affront to public morals.” The judge encouraged comedy club managers to “compel comedians to submit scripts before allowing them to go on.” Wayne, meanwhile, was convicted on the charge of “lewd entertainment,” for which he served six months in prison. Worse than some angry blog posts.
Nesteroff began his career as a stand-up comedian in Vancouver before turning to writing. His work has been credited by The New York Times, NPR, The Guardian, CBC Radio, The Chicago Tribune, Atlantic Monthly, and many more outlets. The A.V. Club called Nesteroff their “favorite pop culture historian” and one of the strongest TV critics and academics.
He also has an upcoming book, The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels and the History of American Comedy available for pre-order.
