Dear America, Keep Political Correctness Out of Comedy

Comedy has been an important part of our lives forever. It brightens days, reduces stress, and just makes life better.

Although, recently stand-up comedians have taken some heat from a crowd member saying that different jokes at their shows are offensive. 

Some people are fighting for comedians to become less offensive by trying to bring political correctness into comedy. But, this is a terrible idea.

For those of you that do not know, political correctness (PC) is defined as “conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities (as in matters of sex or race) should be eliminated” (Merriam-Webster). 

Some may think this is a good idea, but much of comedy comes from some sort of tragedy or devastating topics. One comedian, Jeff Ross, once said, “We have a responsibility to shine the light on the darkest aspects of society.” 

If you watch a comedy special, you will see many of the jokes stem from a dark topic. This is how comedy has always been, and it is how it should be able to stay. 

There is a reason for the job of a comedian–to make people laugh. But, with political correctness, people want so much comedy to be censored that it could very well just become less funny and less enjoyable.

Almost all of these videos of someone getting mad or offended at a comedy show have one thing in common, which is that it is always one person. There are plenty of videos of a comedian telling a joke, the entire audience laughing, and then one person yelling out that the joke is offensive, or not okay.

I think Ricky Gervais, a well-known comedian, says it best when he says, “Just because you’re offended, it doesn’t mean you’re right…Offense is about feelings, and feelings are personal.”

It is wrong for a comedian to need to apologize for a joke that thousands of people found to be funny, but one person thought it crossed the line.

Over the years, a fair amount of society has become way too uptight and sensitive, especially about comedy.

But, throughout my time looking at videos and articles of supporters of the movement of political correctness into comedy, I’ve come to realize that this is such a small part of our population. 

As I said before, it is always just one person among thousands at a comedy show to speak out about a joke that they found offensive. So many people enjoy these comedy shows and jokes exactly how they are, but there are efforts to make changes just to accommodate a few people. To me, that is wrong.

Ricky Gervais also states, “If you try and please everyone, you’ll please no one.” I couldn’t agree more with this statement. If there are people who do not enjoy comedy, or how offensive they think it might be, they do not have to watch or listen to it, it is as simple as that. They should not be able to change the already enjoyable experience for others.

Along with the audience, the comedians, as expected, largely disagree with bringing political correctness, or PC, into comedy. Comedians like Jerry Seinfeld, Steve Harvey, and Bill Burr all believe that PC is heavily hurting comedy.

Jerry Seinfeld, one of the most popular comedians of all time, says, “I just want somebody to just [say] ‘it’s a joke, I’m not apologizing.’”

This is so important because when a comedian takes heat for a joke that they said, it seems that people tend to forget that it was a joke. 

Sometimes a comedian can tell a joke that is called offensive, but if that ever happens, I think people still need to remember that the comedian’s goal is not to be mean or offensive, it is to make you laugh. 

Sometimes a joke doesn’t work out and someone might not laugh, or they may even dislike it. But, that comes back to the point of comedy being personal because plenty of other people may have found that same joke funny.

Political correctness is trying to change comedy in order to please that one person, and leave thousands with a worse, less enjoyable, watered-down comedy. In other words, political correctness will greatly hurt comedy, possibly even ruin it.

All in all, political correctness needs to stay out of comedy. There are bigger problems in the world than one person not liking a certain joke. It is truly silly that some people want to risk ruining comedy by bringing in political correctness just to make a few people feel better.