Please Don’t Cancel Me!

  

Are there things we feel that we can’t discuss or make jokes about for fear of scorn, rejection, reprisal, and cancellation? In these hyper-sensitive, PC Woke days, many feel they have to self-censor way too often because we live in an ultra-sensitive society. One book says screw that - and to grow a pair! 

Kat Timpf, a co-host of Gutfeld!, a popular Fox TV show, penned a wonderful book. You Can’t Joke About That. The former stand-up comedian tells us why everything is funny, nothing is sacred, and that we’re all in this together.  

Can you joke about race, gender, sex, death, trauma, poverty, illness, or disability? Of course, you can, unless you’re a pussy who is afraid to show how retarded it is for us to shun so many words and comments simply because we fear someone will be hurt. Good comedy takes risks, and the best jokes likely offend someone. That’s okay. We need to laugh at ourselves and to be honest with our views and words.  

Context, intention, and environment all play a role in when we say what we say. We act differently at a church funeral than at a football game, the office, or courthouse, or a comedy club.  

Timpf argues “That we can make jokes about the darkest things in life,” and takes it a step further to say: “it is not just that we can joke about life’s most awful things; it’s also that we should.” She also says “It’s a comedian’s job to push boundaries.” 

The book cites a 2021 poll by Harvard’s Center for American Political Studies found that 64% of Americans reported considering a growing cancel culture to be a threat to their freedom. 

Certainly, when it comes to comedy, we need to all understand, accept, and embrace how it is the job of comedians to push boundaries, even if it results in bad jokes or funny ones at the expense of others. 

The bottom line: don’t be quick to cancel someone for what they say. Try to figure out if one is intentionally trying to be hurtful or to perpetuate a harmful stereotype. Was their statement intended to be a joke or a serious expression of a deeply held belief? Either way, tolerance, restraint, and open dialogue is what’s needed - and not to jump on a bandwagon to destroy anyone who disagrees with us. 

Below are selected book excerpts: 

·         “The truth is, there’s really no such thing as a ‘safe space,’ because everyone is going to have a different idea of what that means. You can plan for everyone to only attack ‘acceptable’ targets, but you’ll never really know what targets are and are not ‘acceptable’ for each person in attendance. We’re all unique individuals with unique sets of life experiences, preferences, and beliefs- which means that we’re all going to view any given situation in our own unique way.”

·         “As Ricky Gervais put it in his own Netflix special, which also prompted backlash for its jokes about trans people, “I talk about AIDs, famine, cancer, the Holocaust, rape, pedophilia. But no, the one thing you mustn’t joke about is the trans issue. ‘They just wanted to be treated equally.’ I agree. That’s why I include them.” 

·         “Outlawing hate speech may sound nice and warm and fuzzy until you realize that all you’re doing is giving the government the power to decide what kind of speech is and isn’t permissible.” 

·         “Even if you can’t be jailed in this country (yet) for crossing a line, knowing that you can face other consequences - like ostracization, cancellation, and harassment - can still have a chilling impact on speech. Unfortunately, the immense benefits of comedy, especially the kind of comedy that flies in the face of the sacred, are threatened when people become too afraid to take risks, whether what they’re afraid of is jail or not.” 

·         “Openness and humor absolutely need to break free from the constraints of fear and cultural censorship. It’s so important for all of us, both individually and as a society. The darker the subject matter, the greater healing that laughter can bring, disarming the darkness and making the people who are feeling isolated by their trauma feel less alone. The truth is, anyone who has ever said ‘You can’t joke about that!’ isn’t just annoying and wrong; they’re also causing real harm - robbing joy, healing, and connection from the people who need it the most.” 

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.9 million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.