Comedy Is Full of Self-Censoring Wimps

I wouldn’t normally cover a story from the comedy industry blog Chortle, as you’ve probably never heard of it. In fact, in my 11 years as a standup comedian, I never found a single normal person who knew what it was. For comedians, however, its typo-ridden, low IQ screeds could make or break a career.

This week, though, it actually published an interesting piece by Samantha Pressdee, a comedian I have not heard of, having mercifully left the cesspit of the comedy world. And Pressdee now appears to be going the same route, calling the comedy scene “a community of self-censoring wimps”. One has to LOL.

Pressdee asks “Where are the alpha males? Where are the men who unapologetically say what they think? Where are the heroes who take a stand for freedom of expression?” Of course the answer is they are on Headliners, every night at 11pm on GB News. But I take her point.

It seems Pressdee got into comedy, as many of us did, with an image of the comedian as lone truth-teller. Such has been the tradition of some of the greatest comics, from Richard Pryor, to Bill Hicks, to the less known but equally great Patrice O’Neal.

In most cases the ambition is to embody this persona, though in Pressdee’s case it turns out she was simply looking for “a husband (with balls)!”. Fair enough. Either way, that ideal is all but gone. There are still comics out there who fit the mould, such as Tom Stade, who I opened for on two national tours. But the prevailing mood in the comedy world, and the one that will land you the coveted TV spots, is that of woke groupthink and its attendant culture of fear, backstabbing, and bullying.

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