Mr. George Carlin said: “I think it is the actor’s responsibility to find out where the limits are and intentionally cross them.”
Actors have always struggled to find a balance between pleasure and violence. But in today’s climate, crossing the line (defined as state-to-week, month-to-month, or year) can be problematic and inconsistent.
Take a look at some of the artists who pushed the boundaries and will make you question them: “Have you gone too far?”
Michael Richards
Michael Richards spent many years as Kramer on the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. The sitcom ceased airing in 1998 and returned to theaters in 2006. The audience didn’t like the N-word followed by a very bizarre version of the tape. He then apologized and met with civil rights officials.
Andrew Dice Clay
Andrew Dice Clay has always been at odds with audiences unsure whether his exaggerated, xenophobic, and misogynistic stage character is satire meant to hate, or simply an elated version of a man himself who stands for true opinions. His jokes about the use of women as sex products and other slurs against immigrants and ethnic groups (he once called Asians “race of color”) protested against criticism for many years. Saturday Night Live cast member Nora Dunn and musical guest Sinead O’Connor even declined to appear in an episode he held in 1990.
Louis C.K.
Louis C.K. is aware of his inconsistent jokes which are different from jokes about racism, sexism, and other issues. Yet when it came to becoming a host on Saturday Night Live in 2015, many thought he had gone too far with a keeper who seemed to abuse disgusting children. And this is not the first time. One of his most ridiculous jokes is about homicidal pedophiles. He then said he understood why they were doing it because it was so difficult to return the children to their parents.
Daniel Tosh
Most of Daniel Tosh is known to audiences from the comedy series Tosh.0 which ran for 11 years at Comedy Central through November 2020, to years of conflict. Tosh was most upset when he appeared at Laugh Factory in Los Angeles in 2012. He had previously joked about sexual harassment. He told one of the females in the audience that it would be funny if the men around him raped her right away. Descriptions of the incident have spread to Tumblr, The Daily Beast, and other media.
Ari Shaffir
Ari Shaffir was not shy about saying things that would provoke public outrage, but after tweeting that it was a “good day” the day Kobe Bryants died in a helicopter crash in 2020, many told him reproach for having gone so far. H did because he hated the Lakers. According to him, Bryant was excused of sexual assault a few years ago and was able to escape the rape.
Roseanne Barr
Roseanne Barr was a pioneer in comedy, not only as a woman but also as the person who brought working-class comedy back to television with her hit comedy Roseanne (1988-1997). ABC took back Roseanne and gave her another chance. Her returned glory was short-lived when she posted a Tweet mentioning Valerie Jarrett, former advisor to President Barack Obama as the product of the Muslim Brotherhood and The Planet of the Apes. Not to forget, Jarrett is Black. ABC canceled the show almost immediately, after which they began casting of The Conners (a spinoff without Barr).
Bill Maher
Maher is no stranger to controversy. ABC canceled his Politically Incorrect in 2002 after he described the 9/11 kidnappers as cowards. But in 2017, he frivolously used the N-word on the HBO Real Time show. The backlash was immediate, and he invited rapper and actor Ice Cube the next week. It was basically to school him on why that word is not supposed to be used.
Kathy Griffin
Kathy Griffin often makes jokes that fit the line. It looks like Anderson Cooper, CNN’s special presenter for New Year’s Eve, is an annual special. Until she was fired and almost blacklisted after posting a photo of herself holding the fake head of President Donald Trump. Security officials were also involved. Griffin climbed higher and continued to travel, but still not with Cooper in the New Year.
Lisa Lampanelli
Lisa Lampanelli sometimes referred to as the “loveable queen of mean”, has never shied away from making jokes that affect the race, gender, and gender rights. She retired from stand-up in 2018. In 2013, Lampanelli caused trouble by tweeting a photo of her and Lena Dunham with the N-word in the caption. She then defended herself because she said the word ended with “a” rather than “uh”.
Shane Gillis
In 2019, Shane Gillis was a small comedian who made it to the big stage on Saturday Night Live. However, the dream show didn’t last as long as he was kicked out of SNL for making comments against Asians and homophobes.
Anthony Jeselnik
The 2013 Comedy Central series The Jeselnik Offensive was canceled due to a joke that many, including network executives, thought was too much. Anthony Jeselnik appeared on “Shark Party!” to celebrate the death of New Zealand man Adam Strange, who died while swimming. Jeselnick posted a strange image on the screen and said, “Let’s not forget the man who did all of this. Smile, you son of a b*tch.”
Amy Schumer
Amy Schumer did not name her series on Comedy Central as Inside Amy Schumer (2013-2016) to avoid any sort of offense. Her way of arguing is to report sexual or other illnesses, often with occasional self-deprecating but extremely insulting and abusive comments. Many accused her of discriminating against others with the following joke: “I have met and been in a relationship with Hispanic men, but now I only like the consensual.”
Gilbert Gottfried
Gilbert Gottfried’s fame as a smart actor was fully revealed when he tweeted a joke about the 2011 earthquake/tsunami in Japan that claimed thousands of lives. And in 2001, just weeks after the 9/11 attacks, while at the Friars Club in New York, he jokingly said that he couldn’t fly directly because the plane had to stop at the Empire State Building. The public was clearly unhappy.
Dane Cook
Star Dane Cooks seems to go up and down with the wind. The veteran actor has been making some controversial jokes for years, including an incident of a gruesome mass shooting in the movie theater named Aurora in Colorado, in 2012. Cook took the reference to the movie Dark Knight Rises and said that it was so terrible that someone should say “Kill me”. He then apologized for the inconvenience caused.
Jeff Ross
Ross has made a name for himself with several celebrity roasts from Comedy Central. While most of the reviews he spoke about were pleasant, he made a lot of jokes about the horrific incident at the Aurora cinema in Colorado, in 2012. Even Barr says he crossed the line. And Comedy Central cut the joke out of the air. Ross didn’t care much, arguing that people should be more concerned about guns than joking about them.
Howard Stern
Where does the first “exercise in despair” begin? Does he regularly rant about masturbation? His sexist obsession with pornstars? Was he fined for blasphemy within the FCC? Stern has said a lot of things that affect many groups. However, appearing as superhero “Fartman” at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, he appeared on stage to show his butt. It offended almost everyone in the crowd.
Sarah Silverman
Sarah Silverman’s tongue jokes about everything from religion to abortion, and she rarely thinks about who she is going to abuse. For example, in a tweet that occurred in 2009, she asked if a child makes the first move in case of child molestation. In 2019, a Florida baptismal pastor wanted to die immediately because of a joke that Sarah made about Jesus in 2005. Silverman posted a video, asking to leave the evidence in case someone targeted her.
Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller’s recent libertarian and guardian interest, which fans didn’t see much of early in his career, turned him into a different cast than his star owner. well known for his skepticism about the power of #MeToo, “a safe place” and what he thinks about the elite of the coast, but he is also exploring hotspots. For example, in 2014 it was reported that he said during a stand-in in Hollywood, Florida: “If Israel was there, the Arabs would go to the moon.
Big Jay Oakerson
Big Jay Oakerson speaks badly. Speaking of everything from race to appearance, he doesn’t really care who he offends (he once said that Seal wanted Rose to kiss him because his face was kissed by a golf spike). Another hobby is picking a man from the audience and then asking them questions about their penis size, involving their spouse or partner in the conversation, and enjoying the awkwardness that comes with it.
Michelle Wolf
Michelle Wolfe was a newcomer to the comedy and was known for her injustice and her critique of today’s world when the correspondents at the White House pulled her from the annual fundraiser in 2018. At the time, President Donald Trump was not attending the dinner and sent his spokesperson. When Sarah Huckabee Sanders sat down, Wolf didn’t hesitate to let Trump down, with the public accusing Sanders of lying to America while she sat quietly on the podium.
Michael Che
Ever since Michael Che joined Saturday Night Live’s “Weekly Update” re-emergence episode, he’s been at odds with the jokes that seem designed to make you cry when you laugh at the camera. He downplayed the importance of Simone Biless’ mental health issues, criticized the sexual “friction” of postmenopausal women, and targeted Kaitlyn Jenner by misgendering her.
Chris Rock
Chris Rock devised a series of jokes that made people feel uncomfortable, often forcing viewers to challenge his racist views and other issues. But at the 2017 Comedy Cellar in New York City, at the start of the #MeToo movement, his words broke down when he told the crowd he wasn’t hiring women because they all could accuse him of rape. The crowd apparently booed at him and Page Six reported that a few women in the audience called him a “sexist pig.”
Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers’s career is based on insulting people, primarily the rich and famous people. She even body-shamed Elizabeth Taylor on E!’s show Fashion Police. She never apologized for it. Joan often criticizes herself by joking about her cosmetic surgery. She also paved the way for women in the arts, supporting HBO’s hit series called Hacks. However, some disagreed with her negative comments during the Fashion Police incident, which led to similarities between Heidi Klum’s outfits and the Holocaust.
George Carlin
Not only was George Carlin happy to say 7 Obscene Words That Couldn’t Be Said on TV (at least he admitted these rants hadn’t appeared on TV before the radio show), but he even touched political, religious, and many other sensitive topics. In 1990 he claimed that “sexual abuse can be fun” by asking the public to “picture Porky Pig rape Elmer Fudd”, which caused backlash many years later.
Jim Jefferies
Although Jim Jefferies has been criticized the most for his feminine remarks (he has already admitted to being mean and the jokes still continue), Australians have been committing the same crime for many years. He called Christians “crazy” and millennials “the worst people in the world.” He also claims to be a waiter of Asian nationality in the 2020 Netflix special.
Dave Chappelle
Dave Chappelle’s 2021 Netflix comedy special did not do well with audiences because of his comments related to transphobia. An employee of Netflix, who’s transgender, even stepped out in protest. So far, Netflix has refused to remove or fix the special. Did the actor really go too far?
Don Rickles
The iconic insult comedian pretty much offended anyone and everyone he could. His infamous criticization was so popular that people began to watch his performances in the hopes that they would be the target of the same. However, Rickles often pinched people of all races and religions (including his tribe) with jokes that affected all negative stereotypes.
Jimmy Carr
Jimmy Carr’s jokes focus on everyone from obese women to the blind and even ask his audience’s opinion on the deaf because they can’t hear. He has even discussed child abuse. Carr has built a fan base for himself but recently noticed that he’s most likely going to be canceled.
Bill Hicks
Bill Hicks, who died of Pancreatic Cancer in 1994 at the age of 32, is not the type to interpret his words or worry about whom he offended. In 1993, he was the first comedian who was removed from The Late Show with David Letterman when the producers thought he was too bad for the audience. In 2009, Letterman expressed regret over it.
Kevin Hart
Kevin Hart is a passionate actor who has made a face for everything from movie commercials to TV shows, but some of his old tweets, including jokes, indicate if his son wanted to play with dollhouses, he would just say “Just stop. That’s gay.”
Hart then apologized. He still continued to spark controversy in his Netflix 2020 special where he joked that his 15-year-old daughter had started showing “ho activity.”
Doug Stanhope
Doug Stanhope has taken his career at the hinge, though he routinely denies that abortion is good for the environment or religion, and often doesn’t think there is any need to apologize or withdraw from his critics. In 2016, he got in trouble with Amber Heard because he accused her of blackmailing Johnny Depp with allegations of domestic violence (the lawsuit was closed after she and Depp settled their divorce).
David Spade
The sarcastic fun of the David Spades brand is not for everyone, especially celebrities. This is especially true for celebrities who lack self-confidence. In Saturday Night Live’s recurring “Hollywood Minute” guest segment, a joke made by him on former member Eddie Murphy prompted him to call Spade to run over him and refuse to appear for years.
Bill Burr
Bill Burr has been a rebel in the comedy industry for many years, but his October 2020 Saturday Night Live monologue has garnered national attention, against the abolition of culture and design, especially focusing more on white women. “I have never heard a white woman complain so much in my life,” he said. He also harassed some by asking them why gays have a month with more days than blacks, with February being the shortest when the Pride month is in focus.
Ricky Gervais
Gervais often mocked the rich, famous, powerful, and bubbly elites. In 2012, he told the audience, “Just like Kate Middleton and Kim Kardashian, the Oscars have Golden Globes. A little louder, a little messier, a little watered and easy to buy.” Then, in his last episode in 2020, he said, “This has been a good year for people who indulged in child abuse-related movies like Surviving R. Kelly, Leaving Neverland, Two Popes,” thereafter. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association considered it as a very racist comment. While it makes others uncomfortable, the HFPA has recently become a real criticism that it lacks black members.
Richard Pryor
This was the 1970s and Richard Pryor spent his early career poking fun at everything from racism to police abuse to homophobia. His stand-up was always going to offend someone, even if it was from a sketch that helped put Saturday Night Live on the map. At a 1977 benefit for human rights at the Hollywood Bowl, he went on a profanity-laden rant about homosexuality and even berated the backstage staff for not treating other black performers better.
Lenny Bruce
Perhaps the most famous comedy actor in history, Lenny Bruce was arrested several times in the 1950s and 1960s. His inability to “cross the line” in-jokes is viewed as abusive by many. This includes criticism and protection of prohibited issues about religion and the Catholic Church. At the same time like homosexuality and the marriages that are interracial all over the world.
Norm Macdonald
Norm Macdonald was known as irreverent and sometimes downright weird, with awkward pauses accentuating every joke. It was Macdonald’s weekly berating of O.J. Simpson who was removed from SNL in the 1990s because he was the “Weekend Update” anchor. Simpson was a good friend of NBC’s Don Ohlmeyer, who fired Macdonald because he thought his constant assertions about Simpson’s guilt went too far.
