Comedian artfully explains what 'shock comics' get wrong about edgy humor
Anthony Jeselnik says there's a difference between being an artist and being a troll.
There's something weird going on with comedians.
Comic and writer Marc Maron recently wrote that it's comedians, of all people — a special new breed of them — who are spearheading the "anti-woke" movement, whether it's by paling around with Donald Trump and his supporters, or just going out of their way to offend as many people as possible.
Not to name any names, but you see this type of comic in the news A LOT these days. Comedians have always pushed the boundaries of what is acceptable to say in public. That's part of the job. But the newer generation of 'shock comics' has forgotten one very important ingredient in the timeless recipe. You have to be funny.
Comedian Anthony Jeselnik recently called out comedians who don't bother actually trying to be funny in their edginess. "You're just a troll," he says.
No one would ever accuse Jeselnik of being a clean-cut, PG entertainer. He's known for being ruthless and shocking in his stand-up sets. It's a character he plays, which he describes as the most vile and evil person you could ever imagine.
Here's a taste from one of his specials:
“When I was a kid, my parents had a gun. My parents said we had to have a gun. Gotta have a gun to protect their five children. Of course, they eventually got rid of it… to protect their four children."
Jeselnik says his brand of extreme humor is not as easy to pull off as it looks.
In a resurfaced clip — which Jeselnik himself just happened to repost to his own TikTok account — the comedian goes off on the types of comedians that he considers to be trolls.
@anthonyjeselnik Four weeks until Anthony Jeselnik: Bones and All comes to Netflix.
"People think like, oh as a comic, your job is to get in trouble. But they don't wanna get yelled at. It's like, it's okay to make people mad, but they don't want any pushback."
"As a comedian, you want to make people laugh," he says.
Which should be obvious, but it's something that's missing far too often in the name of pushing the envelope, or even being flat-out hateful. Jeselnik then invokes a quote from Andy Warhol: "Art is getting away with it."
"If you put out a special, and everyone's pissed," he says, "You didn't get away with it. ... You know, you need to make everyone laugh. .. That's art."
The key word there being 'everyone'. You need to make everyone laugh. A room full of white people laughing at the expense of Hispanics, or a room full of straight people laughing at gay jokes — that's not comedy, it's just punching down.
A joke about cancer that cancer patients can't help but laugh at? Jokes about blind people that blind people actually think are funny? That is art. That is comedy.
And that's what the great comedians have always aspired to. (Warning: NSFW humor)
Of course, everyone misses the mark sometimes, or unintentionally goes too far. But Jeselnik says getting criticized when you miss is just part of the job. He's famously said he has no sympathy for "cancelled" comedians like Dave Chappelle.
“He makes so much money. Your job should be a little hard. I don’t have sympathy for you in that. He says whatever he wants to, great, but when there’s pushback I don’t know why it bothers him,” Jeselnik said in an interview with Talib Kwelli for Uproxx.
George Carlin was another great who understood the art in bringing people together to laugh at touchy subjects. He once said it was a comedian's job to take the audience to a place they don't want to go, but that if you could make them laugh along the way, they'd thank you for it.
Just remember next time a famous person says "you can't make comedy anymore, people are too sensitive!" that there are comics like Jeselnik making jokes about burn victims and necrophilia — and they seem to be doing just fine.
