Is Being P.C. in Comedy Worse Than Being a Sell Out?

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P.C. Is The New Sell Out

In the early 1990s, Bill Hicks, one of the greatest stand up comedians of all time, stated that any comic to appear in an advertisement or commercial for money should immediately be removed from the artistic role call.

“Here’s the deal, folks. You do a commercial, you’re off the artistic roll call forever. End of story, okay? You’re another corporate fucking shill, you’re another whore at the capitalist gangbang, and if you do a commercial, there’s a price on your head. Everything you say is suspect, and every word that comes out of your mouth is now like a turd falling into my drink.”

 

 

The fact that Hicks is still considered a comedy icon two decades after his early death should tell us a fair amount of people continue to follow his gospel, and his words resonated even more powerfully with fans when he was still alive than they do today. Jay Leno selling out to NBC and Doritos in particular inspired Bill’s outburst, and he was hardly the only comedian who felt hurt and shocked Leno so easily and completely would turn his back on an art form he was once a true master of. The comedy world in general has by and large supported a somewhat punk rock ethos, where there’s nothing worse than a sell-out using their art for financial gain. Or at least that’s how it used to be.

Nowadays, it probably wouldn’t be a stretch to say that at least a quarter of young stand ups trying out comedy for the first time have the ultimate goal of being an actor or actress, or at the very least they see stand up as a jumping point to a more varied career in the entertainment industry. Comics like this are probably dreaming bigger than commercials, but if their comedy was to lead them towards a deal hocking Doritos, it might actually be more than anything they realistically thought was possible. It’s arguable the best comedians in the world still see stand up as a pure art form, and they use it solely to express themselves and see any tertiary fame that results as an irrelevant side-effect, but even most of the top comedians in the world don’t seem to have any hesitation to make appearances on a shitty sitcom or star in a lowbrow children’s movie for money if the time seems right.

This shift in cultural perspective shouldn’t be surprising, and Hicks even predicted it in a sense with his cynical and apocalyptic fantasy laden routines. Hicks said he would excuse commercial appearances by young actors looking for money, and with today’s economy and everybody looking for money everywhere, not to mention the fact stand up was never exactly a billion dollar industry for most people, there’s nary a comic alive who couldn’t use a few spare bucks. And the truth is, as hokey and silly as it sometimes is to see a major comedy star like Tina Fey sell credit cards, or Ricky Gervais give advice on which cell phone service you should use, there’s nothing wrong with them expanding their sizeable bank accounts, either. It definitely doesn’t hurt their comedy when they do it.

The most accurate measure of an artist is the respect they have from other artists. We can try to trust money or popularity, but you no longer need to be a cynic to know those things shouldn’t dictate the quality of art, regardless of how important they are to quality of life. At the same time though, it’s not fair to take that respect away just because they like getting paid and don’t have a moral crusade against the advertising industry. Hicks and some of the most stringent comedy diehards might still see some sort of a problem with it, but most people have agreed to look the other way and let their favorite comics get paid however they see fit. However, there’s a new pitfall a comedian can destroy their careers by falling into, and immediately remove themselves from the artistic roll call on a deep and personal level: selling out their morals to political correctness.

Stand up comedy is founded on the principle that anything can be funny, and it is a stand up comedian’s job first and foremost to find the funny in everything. Selling junk food doesn’t exactly get in the way of that; it just distracts them for a few minutes. Once a comedian starts considering who could be offended, especially if those potentially offended people aren’t in their audience nor could they ever be in the first place due to their own backward belief systems, the art form starts to get seriously damaged. A stand up comic’s duty is to take every opportunity they possibly can for a joke, but if they hesitate at making those jokes for any reason, they aren’t doing their job correctly.

To many fans, it’s even worse if a comedian does make a joke, turns around to discover some people in the audience didn’t exactly like the joke, and then makes the unforgivable sin of apologizing for making that joke in the first place. It doesn’t happen often, and these days, comedians are far more likely to stick to their guns and accept whatever monetary punishment it may cause them, but it hasn’t stopped certain groups from begging comedians to apologize for even the tamest jokes. Shortly after Don Imus famously apologized for racially insensitive comments that got him kicked off the radio, Opie and Anthony went through a similar ordeal after making a rape joke about Condoleezza Rice. Opie and Anthony refused to apologize with many comedians taking their side, and the legendary, late Patrice O’Neal defended them to his dying day over that decision because he firmly felt a comedian’s job is to find funny in everything. When Daniel Tosh went through a similar controversy a few years later, and he did eventually apologize, but dozens of comedians spoke in his defense anyway, arguing he didn’t really have to.

Patrice is correct about a comedian’s job description, and no comedian should be forced into political correctness. More importantly, no comedian should have to apologize for a joke. Despite that, maybe it’s time we stopped getting so harsh on the comedians who chose to get into that sort of territory from the start. Some comedians are flat out P.C. comedians who only do classy business shows and events for children, and while that might not be the high point of the industry, it doesn’t exactly make sense to attack or insult them for trying to make a living in a manner they find fun. And just like a comedian selling out to marketing, selling out to a moralistic audience is just one of several paths a person can go down to keep succeeding in what by all practical terms is a business.

The reason the world eventually mellowed out on so-called sell-outs shilling stupid products on television was society’s sad, tragic, and inevitable realization that just like anything else in this world, as a business, the point of comedy is to make money by providing a service. Fans may want for it to be an art form, even beg for it to go back to its artistic and purest roots, but that’s not why the industry exists. Purists can go to open mics and watch beginners struggle in front of an audience of dozens, but once the success train starts running, money is going to start getting involved. As long as someone is still laughing and having a good time, comedians are still doing their jobs.

The best we can hope for is that the material stays strong, but even if it doesn’t, we shouldn’t hate a comedian who starts to become increasingly P.C. and mainstream as their career expands. Old fans need to simply accept they fell out of the comic’s audience. Maybe enough people fell out of the audience and their career will crash and burn, or maybe they’ll find a new, weird P.C. audience that laughs at the new stuff and gives them their money. Either way, “stand up comedian” is a job title, not a seal of artistic merit. It’s great if they can achieve that artistic merit as well, but the job part means money comes first, so we need to stop blaming them when they want to actually make some money while they try to make people smile.

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Lucas Wesley Snipes

Lucas Wesley Snipes is a writer, improviser, and standup comedian living in Los Angeles. He is also a trained trapeze artist, which he loves telling people.
Lucas Wesley Snipes
Lucas Wesley Snipes
Lucas Wesley Snipes is a writer, improviser, and standup comedian living in Los Angeles. He is also a trained trapeze artist, which he loves telling people.