The late George Carlin once said, “I think it’s the comedian’s duty to find where the line is and deliberately cross it.”
Comedians have always struggled to find a balance between satire and attack. However, in today’s climate, crossing boundaries can cause controversy and consequences, even if defined as week-to-week, month-to-month, or year-to-year.
Let’s take a look at some of the comedians who pushed the boundaries and asked big questions: were they overkill?
Comedian Michael Richards
Michael Richards spent many years as a beloved character Kramer on the popular NBC sitcom Seinfeld, finishing his run in 1998 and then trying the stand-up comedy again in 2006. However, his performance at the Rough Factory in Los Angeles failed when he responded. After bowing in N Ward, a strange racist play came to notice. He later apologized and met with a civil rights leader.
Comedian Andrew Dice Clay
Andrew Dice Clay has always been controversial, defending his exaggerated xenophobic, misogynistic stage persona, a satirical character destined to be hated, or a real view. The audience is never convinced that it is an enhanced version of himself. His jokes about using women as sexual objects, and others who despised immigrants and various races (he once called Asians “urine color”) have been around for many years. It has frustrated critics. Saturday Night Live actress Noradan and her reserved musical guest Sinéad O’Connor even refused to appear in the episode she published in 1990.
Comedian Louis C.K.
Louis C.K. Racism, sexism, and other third-line topics mocking jokes, known for not knowing whether the audience will laugh, slap, or moan. However, when he appeared as a guest host on Saturday Night Live in 2015, many thought he had gone too far with loneliness that seemed to downplay child abuse. And that wasn’t the first time. One of his most notorious jokes was about killing pedophiles.
Comedian Daniel Tosh
Daniel Tosh, best known for the comedy series Tosh.0, which aired on Comedy Central for 11 years until November 2020. He has often pushed the boundaries of the program, but his stand-up performance has increased. Voluntary comedy clubs have caused even more controversy over the years. Tosh was probably the angriest when he appeared at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles in 2012. He told the audience who yelled at him about her previous jokes that downplayed her sexual assault that it was hilarious for the men sitting around her to rape her at that moment. And there. Report of the incident reached Tumblr, The Daily Beast, and other media.
Comedian Roseanne Barr
Roseanne Barr made a breakthrough in comedy, not only as a woman but also as the person who brought working-class comedy to television in the hit comedy Roseanne (1988-1997). ABC then returned Rosanne to her second run, temporarily reviving her Birds career, but Valerie Jarrett, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, would take place as the “Muslim Brotherhood.” Her return to glory was short-lived when she tweeted. There was a baby on the ape planet. Jarrett is black. ABC canceled the show almost immediately and then brought back the cast (without Barr) for a spin-off called The Conners.
Comedian Ari Shaffir
Ari Shaffir isn’t afraid to say anything that offends the masses, but he tweeted that the day Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash in 2020 was “a big day.” Many people blame it for being overkill. Because he hates the Lakers. He also hinted that Bryant, who was acquitted years ago for sexual assault, could escape it, causing a storm of concert cancellations and even death threats.
Comedian Bill Maher
Maher is not a stranger to the controversy, as ABC canceled its Politically Incorrect midnight program in 2002 after his comments disputed the cowardly description of the 9/11 hijacker. But in 2017 he used the N-word lightly in real-time on the HBO show, reacted quickly, and invited rapper and actor Ice Cube to the show next week to tell him why it wasn’t suitable for Maher. .. Use the term no matter who is Caucasian and what the intent is.
Comedian Kathy Griffin
Kathy Griffin has often joked. She seemed to enjoy blushing her face with Anderson Cooper, the most serious newscaster on CNN’s New Year’s Eve each year. She was a part of the Secret Service. Since then, Griffin has climbed again and continued touring her country, but the New Year with her Cooper hasn’t sounded yet.
Comedian Lisa Lampanelli
Lisa Lampanelli, also known as the “Sweet Queen of the Community,” was not shy when it came to jokes related to race, gender, and sexual politics. She virtually left the stand-up in 2018, essentially ending her long-term career as a cartoon calling her horrifying name. In 2013, Lampanelli had a problem tweeting a photo of herself and Lena Dunham with an N-word in the caption. He later defended himself because he later stated that the word ended with an “a” rather than an “er” and was therefore intended to show friendship rather than acting as an insult.
Comedian Shane Gillis
In 2019, Shane Gillis was a little-known comedian who made a big break on Saturday Night Live. However, his dream concert followed shortly after people dug up a video podcast and made statements that were considered anti-Asian and homosexual, leading him to SNL even before the season began.
Comedian Anthony Jeselnik
In 2013, the Comedy Central series Jeselnik Offensive was canceled due to a joke that many, including network executives, thought was overkill. Anthony Yezernik apparently held a “shark party” to celebrate the death of New Zealander Adam Strange, who died while swimming. There are dancers who dressed like sharks. That part caused more anger when Jezernick posted a picture of Strange on the screen and commented, “Don’t forget the guy who made it all possible. Smile, you S.O.B.”
Comedian Amy Schumer
Amy Schumer did not mention her Comedy Central series Inside Amy Schumer (2013-2016) in order not to offend people. His approach to controversy is to point out sexism and other evils, sometimes with self-criticism, but with very sharp, social commentary and satire. Many have accused her of being racist with such jokes. “I used to go out with a Spanish boy, but now I like consensus.”
Comedian Gilbert Gottfried
Gilbert Gottfried’s reputation as a brutal comedian came out when he tweeted a joke in 2011. The joke shed light on Japan’s earthquake/tsunami, which killed thousands and resulted in the loss of a favorable concert with Aflac. And in 2001, just a few weeks after 9/11, he joked at the Friars Club in New York City that he couldn’t take a direct flight because the plane had to stop at the Empire State Building. The audience was clearly uninteresting.
Comedian Dane Cook
The stars of Dane Cook appear to move up and down in a prevailing wind. Comedy veterans have a long-standing controversial share of mischief, including a 2012 statement that resolved a horrific shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. Cook suggested that the movie “The Dark Knight Rises” was so terrible that everyone would have said “shoot me” anyway. He later apologized for being insensitive.
Comedian Jeff Ross
Ross made his own name by hosting several Comedy Central celebrity braais. Most of his embarrassing insults are all cheerful, but he was very angry at the 2012 Roseanne Barr Bry, who joked about the horrific shootings that took place at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado just a month ago. I set it up. Even the bar said he crossed the line, and Comedy Central cut off the joke from the broadcast. Ross was unforgivable, and he argued that people should be more worried about weapons than joking about them.
Comedian Howard Stern
Where do you start your original “shock athlete”? His constant explosion about masturbation? His sexist obsession with porn stars? Numerous fines he suffered from the FCC for blasphemous rants? Stern made a series of remarks that offended several groups, but his appearance as a satirical superhero “Fartman” at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards exposed his buttocks and staged. It seems to have offended almost everyone because it imitated the flatulence. And it’s mostly guilty. For blasting the planned Fertman movie.
Comedian Sarah Silverman
Sarah Silverman’s silver tongue ridiculed everything from religion to abortion, and she didn’t care much about who she might offend. For example, in a tweet that resurfaced in 2009, he asked if a child “takes the first step” and is still child abuse. In 2019, Rev. Baptist of Florida joked about Jesus in 2005 and wanted her to disappear prematurely. Silberman shared the video and insisted that he wanted to provide her evidence in case someone really attacked her.
Comedian Dennis Miller
Dennis Millers’ recent libertarian and conservative tendencies are distinguished by his prosperous position as the host of the Saturday Night Live segment “Weekend Update” in the early 2000s, as fans didn’t feel much in his previous work. I became a niche comedian. While skepticism about Miller’s #MeToo movement in 1990, “safe spaces”, and what he considers to be the coastal elite is well known, he also delves into sensitive areas. For example, in 2014, he is said to have said during a stand-up routine in Hollywood, Florida, “When the Israelis camp on the moon, the Arabs will go to the moon.”
Comedian Big Jay Oakerson
Big Jay Oakerson doesn’t hear the word, and while commenting on everything from race to appearance, he really doesn’t care what emotions I destroy (he once said, “His face is He said he wanted the seal to be kissed by a rose just because he was kissed by Golf cleats “). Another favorite is choosing a man from the audience to ask about penis size, having a spouse or partner participate in a conversation, and enjoying the discomfort that results from it.
Comedian Michael Che
Since Michael Che began broadcasting the rerun segment “Weekend Update” on Saturday Night Live, he has caused controversy with jokes that appear to have been designed to scream and moan at the camera. rice field. He downplayed Simone Billes’ mental health struggle, mocked the sexual “friction” of postmenopausal women, and deliberately confused Caitlyn Jenner.
Comedian Chris Rock
Chris Rock built his career out of jokes that made people uncomfortable. Audiences confront their prejudices about race and other controversial issues. However, his comment on the emergence of the #MeToo movement at a New York City comedy cellar in 2017 told the crowd that he did not hire a woman because he could mistakenly blame him for sexual assault. It stopped when I told you. The crowd clearly yelled, and Page Six reported that some women in the audience called him a “sexist pig.”
Comedian Michelle Wolf
Michelle Wolf was an emerging comedian known for the dull and bold judgment of the modern world when the White House Correspondents’ Association took her out of the relative darkness for an annual fundraising dinner in 2018. President Donald Trump at the time did not attend dinner and his coverage, instead of Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Wolf not only blamed Trump, but Sanders was sitting quietly on the stand while Sanders was in the United States. He publicly accused him of lying to others.
Comedian Dave Chapelle
Dave Chappelle’s 2021 Netflix’s special comedy didn’t go well with an audience who ridiculed his remarks as being very transphobic. Some Transgender Netflix employees have withdrawn from protests. Chapel says several film festivals have turned him down since the controversy broke out. So far, Netflix has refused to remove or edit specials. Did the controversial comedian finally go too far?
Comedian Don Rickles
Perhaps the original “insulting comic” Don Rickles was aimed at offending everyone he could, usually his face. His endless rebuke to the audience became so well known that people began to go to his performances in the hope of being attacked in honor. However, Rickles often plagued people of all races and beliefs, including his own Jewish tribe, with jokes that played all possible negative stereotypes. And the 90-year-old comedian, like when he tore people at an AFI event in Los Angeles in 2012 when then-President Barack Obama joked that he was “at home yesterday.” I refused to change over time, but the mop broke. “”
Comedian George Carlin
George Carlin not only uttered seven bad words that couldn’t be said on television (thus, at least in front of the cable, to prevent those riots from appearing on television), but also politics, religion, and dozens of others. Delicate topic. .. In 1990, during a stand-up special, he said, “Rape is fun,” by asking the audience, “Imagine Porky Pig raping Elmer Fudd,” which caused a posthumous reaction decades later. You can do it. ”
Comedian Jim Jefferies
Jim Jeffreys is most criticized for his remarks about women (he admits his previous misogyny and says he has reduced those jokes, even though it’s still clear). But the Australian has tried to be an equal criminal for years. He calls God-believers “stupid” and millennials “the worst people on earth to date.” He also easily disguised himself as an Asian waiter at the 2020 Netflix Special.
Comedian Jimmy Carr
Jimmy Carr aims his jokes at everyone. From obese women to amputees to dwarfs. He told the audience, “Tell me what to do about the hearing impaired,” because you can’t hear your voice. Even child abuse is dealt with. “British scientists have shown that tobacco can harm your child. Enough. Use an ashtray. Carrs has gained supporters over the years.
Comedian Bill Hicks
Bill Hicks, who died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 32 in 1994, wasn’t the one to analyze his words or care who he was angry with (four months before his death). He said that those who were angry at Howard Stern’s comedy would “grow”). .. But today’s viewers will probably be ridiculed when Hicks recommends someone in the advertising industry to “suicide” or says that if a man can have oral sex, a woman will be alone. I said I would. In 1993, he was also the first comedian to cut the entire routine from a late show with David Letterman when the producer thought it was too unpleasant to broadcast his routine. In 2009, Letterman finally aired the routine.
Comedian Kevin Hart
Kevin Hart is a relatively beloved comedian whose face adorns everything from movie posters to television commercials, but some of the old tweets, such as joking that his son had done it. He quit hosting the 2019 Oscar when he resurfaced. , He was breaking it overhead. “Stop, it’s gay. Hart then apologized for claiming to have grown as a human since 2011 when he posted the tweet in question. Hart is still controversial and his 15-year-old daughter faced criticism for the 2020 Netflix Special, which joked that he had begun to show “high activity.”
Comedian Doug Stanhope
Doug Stanhope spent his career at the push of a button, despite a routine that reflected whether abortion was really environmentally friendly or religiously rejected, and generally apologized or deviated from critics. I don’t think there is any need to do it. .. In 2016, she fought a defamation proceeding by Amber Heard, but she disagreed with a joke suggesting that she threatened Johnny Depp for alleging domestic violence (the proceeding with her and Depp ended after resolving the divorce).
Comedian David Spade
David Spade’s iconic mark of humor isn’t for everyone, especially the irresistible celebrities who have mercilessly haunted the regular guest segment “Hollywood Minutes” on Saturday Night Live. A joke that offended former actor Eddie Murphy called Spade and scolded him, refusing to appear on the show for decades.
Comedian Bill Burr
Bill Barr has been a comedy maverick for years, but his Saturday Night Live monopoly in October 2020 was national, especially when he attacked the culture and weaknesses of cancellation, especially for white women. It got a lot of attention. “I’ve never heard so many complaints from white women in my life,” she said, saying they’ve helped white men suppress minorities for centuries. Insisted. He also felt some discomfort when pointing to Pride Month and asking why February was the shortest month for gays to have more days than blacks.
Comedian Lenny Bruce
Perhaps the most notorious comedian in history, Lenny Bruce had gone to prison several times in the 1950s and 1960s for his endless “over-the-line” jokes that he felt very obscene, including riots suspicious of religion and the Catholic Church. And even defend taboos of the time, such as homosexuality and interracial marriage.
Comedian Richard Pryor
Start with Richard Pryor, who talked about everything from racism to police abuse to homosexual aversion. That was the 1970s. His stand-up is brutal and adult-oriented, insulting someone from his “dead honky” sketch that helped map Saturday Night Live during the first 1975 season of his film in the 1980s. But his most notorious on-stage crash occurred at a human rights rally at the 1977 Hollywood Bowl. There, he started an apocalyptic game about homosexuality and even scolded the behind-the-scenes staff for treating other black artists badly.
Comedian Ricky Gervais
Gervais generally insults the rich, famous, privileged, and confused elite. This is more effective than many of the events he hosted at the annual Golden Globe Awards. In 2012, he told the audience, “The Golden Globe Awards are for Kate Middleton’s Kim Kardashian Oscar. It’s a little more difficult, a little more awkward, a little drunker, and easier to buy.” Then, in his final appearance in 2020, he casually said, “It was a great year for pedophile films. Surviving R. Kelly, dating back to Neverland, The Two Popes,” the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Said, “Very racist.” That led to an awkward laugh, but the HFPA soon caught up in a real scandal over the lack of black members.
Comedian Norm Macdonald
Norm Macdonald, best known as rude (and sometimes quite weird), with a nasty pause that emphasizes all the jokes. But that was McDonald’s scolding O.J. every week. Simpson left SNL because he was hosting Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” in the 1990s. Simpson was a good friend of NBC CEO Don Ohlmeyer at the time of the murder trial, believing that McDonald’s continued guilt allegations were overkill, and dismissed him.
