Did Woke Kill Comedy?

No.The claim that “you can’t say anything” is complete BS. You can say what you want, the market will dictate if it’s funny. Saying the “R” word as a punchline is not funny. Never was. But if you make people laugh with your jokes, there is a place for you in comedy, even if you punch down. I have talked about this before. 

But there is a problem similar to wokeness that exists which is “representation based on identity” or identity politics. Comedy should be based on merit. Full stop. 

I once produced a monthly show with another white male comedian (it’s important for the story) where we booked 3 comedians a week. We keep it varied with established comedians but because it was at a reputable comedy club, they had to be regulars at the club and also be able  well on a weekday show with small crowds. Newer comedians would not work for this show for this and other reasons specific to the show.

We were trying to get a big name for the show one week who was hard to book and when he finally agreed, we realized that all 3 comedians were male comedians. Different styles, races and points of view but yes, all men.  Not an ideal situation for a comedy show and the “optics" were bad, especially for my co-producer.  Mind you, for the month right before and right after, we had 2 woman and 1 man and every show before we had at least one woman (and sometimes all 3 were woman).  For this show however, we would have an all male line up.  He suggested we kick someone off the show, which I said was not really fair or possible, since we had a perfect line up, otherwise, with an older married comedian, a younger single black comedian as well as this “big name" comedian. The co-producer was adamant that we needed a woman on the show.  I told him for one show, I thought it would be okay, especially since we had such a solid line up of veteran comedians, albeit male.  This rift caused the other producer to quit producing the show with me, basically implying that I was being unreasonable. 

I spoke to an established female comedian friend of mine and I asked her if I had to replace her on this show, would she be more offended if I picked a brand new female comedian or an established comedian who was male, and she said she would be more offended by a new female comedian. It would be like pandering just to have a woman, she said, instead of merit and she would feel like she was “easily replaceable” with anyone. Again, she was an established comedian and felt the same space should go to an established comedian, male, female or transgender. My three closest friends in comedy are women and they all agreed with this assessment.

Of course, I always want to have a female on a show since half the audience is female and its good to a their voice on a show. They make the show better always and avoid the sausage show dominating by males.   More importantly, the best comedians in Chicago happen to be female.  I am biased because I am friends with them but objectively speaking, to the extend comedy can be objective, I think that's true.  At the same time, trying to be a “white knight” and falling on the sword seems like false outrage to me and does more harm than help.   Especially since the same people playing these games with comedy shows often have biases against older comedians  (like me) or variety of voices. After all if you have a single female comedian, a single gay comedian and a single male comedian all talking about dating, you don’t really have diversity, do you?  

In the end, the show was a success without that producer and I have since had shows with all women booked and all men too with no controversy. The show must go on. 
#comedy #standup #wokeness #identitypolitics