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Brilliant essay.

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"No society can survive if jokes are so bad that they inspire one man to walk up to another man and slap him across the face. We have to get back to a place where we can survive an offensive or insulting joke. We have to allow parents to talk openly about what worries them in their children’s classrooms. We have to be able to debate things without fear of being destroyed or fired." This.

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Really enjoyed this. The death of comedy is one of the most heartbreaking things I'm watching happen. The fact that we're only allowed to laugh at Ted Lasso which is akin to Disney Young Adult humor is depressing. I've even noticed that the only acceptable white man in a national commercial these days looks exactly like Ted Lasso.

I don't know how we come back from this because the industry is gatekeeping humor. I had an appointment with my doctor recently and he was telling me how he watches "old" movies like Mrs. Doubtfire and Step Brothers with his kids because there's nothing new they can laugh it. He doesn't know why Hollywood isn't making funny films anymore. This has been common among people I meet -- everyone is just of stunned how the industry has shifted to family friendly content or Euphoria level content.

There's a reason why people obsessively watch re-runs of The Office, Seinfeld, etc. These were made in a different time where comedy had some teeth and showed how foolish we all look which is something we can laugh at.

Watching a comedian who I love get slapped over what I thought was a pretty lame dated joke was stunning. For him to be slapped by a guy who made his bones doing basically silly rap songs/videos in the early 90's was even more stunning. I mean, Will Smith was basically the Bill Cosby of rap back then. His raps were maybe a stone's throw away from Weird Al's parodies.

I don't know how we get out from this -- "Film Twitter" basically only props up social justice films or stuff that is so esoteric that no one can really understand it. And Hollywood as the gatekeeper doesn't want to make populist mainstream content out of fear that it will offend despite the majority of the country sitting there wondering why they aren't getting good comedies anymore.

We've lost our sense of humor. I fear the only way back is by some independent filmmaker just making a movie that pisses everyone on Twitter off that is hilarious. I feel like that kind of film that just "goes there" will find it's fans by hushed word of mouth and eventually signal to the industry that there's gold in them hills if they want to mine it.

Someone needs to stand up and make that film. But good luck getting it financed by anyone because the fear of backing that kind of project is immense.

It's going to have to be gritty. It's going to have to be low budget. And it needs to happen soon to sway the tide. Otherwise the only acceptable thing in "comedy" will be more Ted Lasso which is a fine show, but barely a comedy. It's more of a belly rub than a belly buster.

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Sasha. I think this is the best thing you have yet written...and I've been reading your stuff for more than a decade now. You bring so much clarity and insight to these issues. You are able to put into words so much of what I feel in my gut...but am unable to articulate myself. Great job.

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Today my reading was on Relativism- the subjective and objective truth, The easiest way to

tell the two apart that objective truth is something that is true on its own merit, whereas subjective truth is something that is true by my criteria, my opinion. Relativism gives us the false pretense of being my own God. It bases it on our emotions being more important than our rational thinking when it comes to decision making and the pursuit of truth. Progressivism (spelling)) is relativistic. It is the power train of narcissism.

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Reminds me of an incident that happened in the '30s. Authors were gathered at a literary dinner honoring a Russian poet. (Couldn't happen now!)

Sinclair Lewis, instead of reading his toast to the Russian, accused Dreiser of plagiarizing his work, and accused everyone else of failing to properly appreciate his Nobel Prize. Lewis sat down to stunned silence, and then Dreiser walked over and slapped him. Lewis, an all-around asshole who enjoyed "punching down", was shocked that one of his bourgeois targets fought back, and apologized in print the next day.

A well-timed slap can do the same job as a laugh, startling everyone out of their emotional spells.

The incident was nicely dramatized here:

https://archive.org/download/OTRR_Can_You_Imagine_That_Singles/Can_You_Imagine_That_40-xx-xx_ep12_Two_Million_an_Hour.mp3

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So, so good.

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Ace defence of a value I can get behind; the right to speak without being assaulted.

I have an idea. An entire book of spoof hot takes on this one incident. I’ll write the one about WS treating a joke about his beautiful missus exactly like someone had keyed his beautiful car. Property! Objectification! Expectations of a blowjob later!

But seriously, when every act has as many moral dimensions as there are fields of activism you end up with a kind of moral phase cancellation which leaves no moral valence with any affective quality.

So, yes. Don’t hit people for saying words. That’s the keeper.

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Great essay! Thanks.

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Hey, it’s true that things are pretty bad. My favorite movie ending of all time is Monte Python’s Life of Brian, in which Jesus on the cross, along with his crucified comrades, starts singing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”. So, looking on the bright side: last night, the notorious non-person Louis CK won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album (hunh? What’s an “album”?🤷🏼‍♂️) How could that have happened if hope isn’t alive and well?

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