Political correctness and the squelching of comedy

We've heard about Chris Rock and Seinfeld regarding working college campuses.

The interview below with Denis Leary is from 9 months ago, but it's pretty good. Toward the end, there are comments about the impact of social media and how it affects new comedians trying to break it big.

Denis Leary on Bill Cosby: ‘F-ck Jell-O. I’m Never Going to Eat Jell-O Again.’

What strikes me as weird is that with the advent of the Internet, it's increasing importance over the past 20+ years, and the more recent growth of social media, I would have expected society to evolve into being more informed, open-minded and tolerant. Seems like the exact opposite is happening, and it is disturbing.

 

Colleges are a different deal, mainly because you are using student funds to entertain. I think if you opened an off-campus place that had stand-ups Friday and Saturday night in a college town you would do well.

 

Vombatus, the internet has given people the chance to find other people who think like them. If anything, it's balkanized us.

 

I've heard several interviews with comedians talking about the days of doing college gigs. All of them talked about being handed a list of things they weren't allowed to joke about. If they did, they wouldn't get paid. They said that is why bombing at a college gig is so common.

 

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. To me the larger trend is the Internet has simply revealed human nature in ways that were never possible before. People with shared beliefs -- Westboro Baptist Church comes to mind here -- have always been around. What the Internet has done is allow them to expand their reach while at the same time making them exponentially more visible.