An Open Letter To Liberal Political Activists From The Comedy Community
Dear Liberal Political Activists & Social Justice Warriors…We in the comedy community thank you for the appreciation you have always shown for our artistic abilities and your eagerness to continually enlist our members & art form in your passionate mission to improve the world. As you know many of us share a number of your political views. But at this time we feel it would be best from now on if we concentrated on being funny and left the world-changing to you. We understand this may be disappointing but our members feel that an unfair responsibility has been placed on us…one that we were never desirous of, nor capable of shouldering. We are comics….our job is to make you laugh…to shine light and to offer a respite from the banalities of daily life. The fact that our remarkable skills have often spilled over into areas of influence in the political realm has been a delightful & unexpected bonus but not the primary motivating factor in our creative expression. Frankly we feel that your reliance on us has become highly dysfunctional…& even frankly codependent.
In more blunt terms….Stop looking for comedians to do your work for you. Banging on doors to affect social change is not fun….Organizing & calling strangers to fundraise for progressive causes and going door to door to elect progressive candidates isnt fun work. But when Martin Luther King wanted to raise the consciousness of America, he went to Alabama & marched in Selma. He didnt go to the Catskills to critique Buddy Hackett’s act. Dr. King would never have been able to devote so much energy to changing Lyndon Johnson’s policies…if he had wasted it tweaking Don Rickles’ punchlines. We LIKE to think comedy is powerful… but if you want to affect real change in this country stop focusing so much on people like AMY Schumer and more on people like CHUCK Schumer. When we spend time & resources on the wrong things we can miss a much bigger picture. Think about the amount of venom & energy social activists spent obsessing & trying to bring down comedian Andrew Dice Clay for offensive JOKES in the 80 while ironically nobody was noticing another comedian named Bill Cosby’s actual REAL OFFENSES.
So Liberal America thank you for your interest…And rest assured many of our members will continue fighting for justice in our spare time as we do indeed share many of your views & concerns. But the comedy community at large no longer desires to serve as a primary torch bearing vehicle for the furtherance of anyone’s political agenda. We believe comedy should punch up…AND yes on occasion even sometimes “down”…AND sometimes right…and sometimes left…and sideways….and frontways and backways…and slantways…etc….but PRIMARILY, ESSENTIALLY & MOST IMPORTANTLY……in FUNNY ways…
Thank you
Funny People Everywhere
