A lot of attention is being paid to a handful of old tweets from Trevor Noah the soon to be host of The Daily Show. People don t like these jokes which are deemed offensive lazy and lame.
Noah for his part tweeted this defense
To reduce my views to a handful of jokes that didn t land is not a true reflection of my character nor my evolution as a comedian.
Trevor Noah ( Trevornoah) March 31 2015
While we have a habit of making celebrities stand behind every small thing they say or do there s something particularly fraught about applying this standard to comedians who make their livelihood by giving takes on the world.
We treat comics almost as if they are preachers with their own brand of gospel. Followers feel pressure to have to agree with every single piece of the message. When a comic tweets (or tweeted) a few things you don t like that calls into question his or her integrity and body of work.
But a comic is like any other artist. Not every piece of art is going to be good nor should we expect it to be particularly when it s in the refinement stage as tweets often are.
In defense of Trevor Noah s stupid tasteless tweets
As my colleague Caitlin Dewey points out the handful of tweets that have Trevor Noah in the hot seat represent less than one percent of Noah s entire Twitter output. Some of them are quite old. Like many comedians Trevor Noah pushes boundaries he is provocative and spares no one himself included a Comedy Centeral statement defending Noah reads. To judge him or his comedy based on a handful of jokes is unfair.
A masterful universally applauded musician can release a very terrible song. Look at what David Bowie and Mick Jagger did. Just look Willie Nelson released an entire reggae album described by The Post as a pop music disaster of the highest order. Don t believe it Listen to this. And despite those songs being refined products that were thoughtfully released to the world unlike Noah s tweets which are more like rough drafts we don t use the reggae mishap to discredit Nelson s overall musical genius.
The worst joke a comic can tell is a lazy one. Comics can often go too far while honing their voice and defining their worldview. As comic and Daily Show producer Jena Friedman tweeted The way young comics become great comedians is by testing the waters saying things that may cross the line experimenting with taboos. She added My comedic persona in my early 20s was sociopathic it took me years to find my voice and it will take me even more years to make it funny
Chris Rock isn t the only comedian who thinks cellphones are killing stand up comedy
Twitter serves as just one platform where the experimentation can take place and for a lot of comics it functions not just as megaphone for what s ready for primetime but also as a virtual open mike where they can workshop. But the stickiness of Twitter and other instant publishing platforms has given comics pause for what they release out to the world. This is something a lot of comics lamented after Noah s tweets surfaced
Dance like no one's watching tweet like one day you will be held up as the moral authority of the land.
Kumail Nanjiani ( kumailn) March 31 2015
we all know the only acceptable way for a comedian to use twitter is to unsuccessfully shame an airline PR account into giving them a refund
joe mande ( JoeMande) March 31 2015
You can only lose on twitter.
Mike Birbiglia ( birbigs) March 31 2015
Comics willingly throw their hot garbage out into the world because they re training their minds to constantly be searching for the kernel of funny around them. A lot of the material is not good. It s the audience s right to be offended and not like those jokes. They should express that displeasure and feel comfortable in doing so because there is no better instructor for a comedian than bombing miserably. How else does a comic find out what s too far or just not good
But we re increasingly requiring comics to answer for every thing they have ever said a standard to which we don t hold other artists when looking at their craft. Even comedy masters like Steve Martin can falter. A bad joke should be judged as a bad joke and a comic who consistently tells bad jokes is probably a bad comic. But good comics can tell bad jokes too.
And comics will never tell biting and insightful jokes without being able to take risks without being forever judged by them. Audiences should be more forgiving of comedians in the way they are with musicians or other artists otherwise all we ll end up with are bits about traffic and airplane food.
No comments:
Post a Comment