Comedy, Jamie O, Political Crack

Woke Is Ruining Comedy? What A Joke

Marc Maron

I was in my old stomping grounds of Pittsburgh, PA, over the weekend to see comic Marc Maron and to do a few of the things I miss doing from when I lived in Pittsburgh for 10 years during the late 80s and 90s.

Pittsburgh is a very interesting city, a town that has been getting a fair amount of positive press over the last decade or so, mainly “No, really this is no longer a smoggy blue-collar town full of people who only drink beer and watch sports.” I would say that it’s a surprisingly beautiful, quirky town that balances the old with the new quite well.

Maron often talks about his fascination with Pittsburgh on his podcast, WTF with Marc Maron. During his Thursday night set at the Carnegie Library Music Hall, he spent about 15 minutes talking about his experiences in the city in the past and during his current trip. He also covered what it’s like to be a lefty Jew who believes there should be an Isreal in a time when Israel is run by a right-wing madman committing war crimes, the nature of art, his relationship with one of his cats, becoming a vegan, and various other very funny bits. He then turned to so-called wokeness, and took a surprisingly pointed shot at Jerry Seinfeld and others who claim that “woke” is killing comedy. First off, it helps if you are not familiar with his comedy to know his thoughts on “woke is ruining comedy.”

I agree, it’s both hacky and a way for such comedians to become appropriated by right-wingers. Maron once commented on how Dave Chappelle invited him to go see one of Chappelle’s recent sets, and he was taken aback by how it seemed less like standup and more like a right-wing political rally. Last Thursday, Maron took aim at Seinfeld’s recent comments about how “woke” is ruining comedy, claiming there are no good sitcoms anymore.

Comedy is a matter of taste, but to make the claim that shows like Hacks or Abbott Elementary aren’t funny is a reach. And Maron called Seinfeld out on the hypocrisy of it.

On Maron’s podcast, Seinfeld said that comedians having a point of view is pointless, that they should just tell jokes, and that no one really cares what a comedian thinks. As Maron put it during his Pittsburgh set, Seinfeld was quiet for 20 years and suddenly jumped out of his cave to declare that woke people are ruining comedy. That this is something Seinfeld feels is important enough to speak up about, given everything else going on, is quite rich given how he said before no one cares what a comic thinks.

Like most things in the war against woke, it’s not really based on anything. In fact, claiming overly sensitive people are ruining comedy is not new. Historian Paul Fairie has a whole list of times when people said the same thing going back to the late 19th century.

A side note: Fairie has an entire set of Twitter threads where he takes apart a lot of “back in my day” claims that are just plain nonsense, such as “nobody wants to work anymore.”  If you are one of those people who believe your rage at anyone questioning your ideas will bend reality to how you think it is, all I can tell you, kiddo, is don’t click on that link.

At his current rate, it would not surprise me to see Seinfeld go the way of Chappelle and other comics who have become the darling of the Fox News set. Perhaps he can land a Netflix special for $25 million so he can tell the world how he is not allowed to be funny and even do a sold-out tour of large theaters. That is, after all, what the cancel culture warriors of comedy do.

The last word goes to Lucy Dacas.