Can Comedy Survive ‘Cancel Culture’? A New Book Explores the Risks

Few things feel as indulgent as a good laugh, particularly now when it’s hard to see what’s so funny about the divisiveness, the aggression, the punching down. That’s why it feels right that Jon Stewart came back to “The Daily Show” after nearly a 10-year hiatus. Trying times need jokes.

But doing comedy has become an unnerving vocation in recent years. Social media has created an international squadron of thought police, eager to take down the latest comedian to offend, as Georgetown University professor Jacques Berlinerblau notes in his new book, “Can We Laugh At That?: Comedy in a Conflicted Age.”

Comedians as disparate as Dave Chappelle, Kathy Griffin and Bassem Yousef have become targets of criticism for a variety of reasons, writes Berlinerblau. Chappelle has been criticized for his commentary on the trans community; Griffin faced backlash for a controversial photograph; and Yousef emigrated after facing scrutiny for allegedly insulting Islam.

These incidents, Berlinerblau analyzes, might have drawn less attention during what he calls the “Pre-Digital Liberal Free Speech Consensus,” which held that suppressing artistic expression should be a last resort. The open exchange of ideas was considered beneficial to a healthy democracy.

But with illiberalism on the rise, comedians find themselves subjected to a tightening of public opinion.

The proper response to harmful speech is more speech, as the Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once articulated. But the digital era has made “more speech” seem like a deafening chorus that can drown out dialogue or expressions of remorse.

The wildly successful comic Kevin Hart stepped down from hosting the Oscars in 2018, after years-ancient homophobic tweets resurfaced. Hart apologized and claimed that he’d evolved, but the damage was already done.

Awards shows “aren’t comedy-friendly environments anymore,” he reflected in 2024 — the same year he received the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize.

Berlinerblau points out that very few American comedians have actually suffered the full consequences of their supposed “cancellation.” Griffin lost her gig as the co-host of CNN’s New Year’s Eve celebration and has reported a decline in her career earnings.

Chappelle, Shane Gillis and Matt Rife continue to headline arenas and reap the rewards of television. The late-night host Stephen Colbert’s show is ending, but he’ll likely have more to say after it does.

Berlinerblau recounts episodes involving international comedians — in India, France, and Zimbabwe — demonstrating that “cancel culture” can be more consequential in other parts of the world.

The great American comic George Carlin believed that “it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is and cross it deliberately.” Comedy works through surprise or audacity.

In that respect, comedy has always held out the possibility of feeling dangerous.

“You know what’s more destructive than a nuclear bomb?” asks Kim Jong-un in the 2014 Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy “The Interview.”

James Sullivan is a freelance writer.