Jill Stein thinks we need to have conversations about comedians.
Here is an excerpt from Jill Stein’s Facebook page:
“We need to begin having honest conversations about the oppressive tactics corporate comedians continue to do towards already-marginalized groups of people. This country was built on oppressing The Other (Blacks and indigenous people) and I’m not going to stand for more of this while we deal with major crises in this country that could determine whether we’ll even survive as a species.”
Her comment comes after a comedic skewering by John Oliver.
A couple of things come to mind.
First, many professions require a person to weather criticism. If your feelings are easily hurt by teenagers, then you shouldn’t teach high school. If you work with the public, be prepared to have some asshat unload all over you because they can. If you want to be president of the United States, then thick skin is a job requirement.
Secondly, and more importantly, she is wrong to try to silence or sanitize comedy.
Comedy has played a role in social change for centuries.
Napoleon Bonaparte said that James Gillray, a caricaturist, “did more than all the armies in Europe to bring me down.” Thomas Nast, a cartoonist, is credited with being instrumental in bringing down Boss Tweed and his Tammany Hall cohorts. A Dutch cartoonist named Louis Raemaekers drew anti-German cartoons that had such an impact that it is rumored the German government put a bounty on him, dead or alive.
We need comedians and satirists to shine an unforgiving light on our leaders. We need to see leaders in an absurd light. We need to see the chinks in their armor.
Comedians present this information to us in a palatable way.
Comedians, cartoonists and satirists present truths or angles with a few words or pictures which can inform
as much as scholarly articles. Articles that a large portion of the united states will never read. Most people will look at a cartoon, or watch a short comedic political commentary or sketch.
Often, comedic shows get derided with the oft repeated admonishment against getting one’s news from a comedian.
The truth is, though, just because their message might be funny, doesn’t mean it’s not news.
If Jill Stein worries about the continuation of the species, she better hope that we keep our sense of humor because without that, the future seems exceedingly bleak to me.
Hm, I wonder which Oliver segment she meant. I did see one where he pointed out how unprepared she was on policy and played some of the music she made as part of a band several years ago. I don’t remember him targeting any of the marginalised groups she mentions while he was doing it.
On the contrary, putting someone down just because they’re a member of this or that group is exactly the sort of thing Oliver would skewer.
We have too many thin skinned people wanting to hold the highest office in the country. They have to have thick skin. And we NEED THE FUNNY. I also didn’t see him skewering the marginalized groups she spoke of.
One more day, that’s my mantra today. One more day.
I’ve thought the same about the news/comedy/talk shows. They can be a day or two ahead of the MSM. They let me laugh at the things that are happening. It lowers my anxiety.
One more day.
Yep. One more. Then we get to deal with the aftermath.
Each for different reasons. I hope that I chose right. Too late now but at least we’re still friends.
Friends is good 🙂
I’m having trouble coming to grips with the choices of some of my (female) friends.
Thanks, Troll
‘Still friends’ is good 🙂
I’m having trouble dealing with the choices of some of my (female) friends.
Thanks, Troll.
AND… cyberspace may not be my friend, today….
Fine. Staying home, anyway 🙂
Haha. I wish I were staying home today. Tomorrow, too. But no…
All too often, it’s been the comedians who’ve been the voice of reason and sanity during this election cycle. One more day…
I know. I just want to fast forward through the next 36 hours.
I so agree with you Roxanne! It’s the only thing that has kept me sane. And anyone too thin-skinned to be the butt of a joke should not be anywhere near the nuclear codes.
Amen!
CBS Sunday Morning did a great segment on the power of comedy as it relates to politics. I love that show.
Oh, I would have liked to watch that!
You never shoot the clowns, jesters or comedians! We all need some comic relief. I think Jill forgot her history with her sense of humor.
Hhahahaha! Yes!
I am an election inspector in New York state. If I didn’t have some comedic sensibility to take with me, our local papers might feature my maniacally twisted visage above a wildly waving serrated bread knife. Just get me, and us all, through tomorrow, please, I pray to all the comedians, cartoonists, satirists, bloggers and funny crazy fuckers. And I thank you. Can’t wait for Wednesday.
You and me both, sister. Wednesday cannot get here soon enough.
If we have no comedians, we have no hope.
Just because a person is funny and gets paid for it, doesn’t make him/her trivial.
How’s Jill gonna get rid of all the hilarious free Tweets that get reprinted in magazines and reposted on websites?
I agree, Michelle. If you can’t pay the piper, don’t buy for the pipe.
OR. If you sunburn easily, stay out of the sun?
Seems like easy rules, to me. Thin skinned and easily offended has no place in the public eye, baiting the comedians.
Like Mama always said, “If you can’t say something nice…” So, I tried to say something funny.
Maybe that’s all the comedians are doing.
Exactly!!!
Bang. Right on target again. I have been a political comedian most of my adult life. And having worked with and as a comedian, I’ve come to think of good ones as talented prophets – telling the truth as hard as they can. Laughter can heal our pain and disarm us (literally – I mean how much better to laugh at someone, then take sane action than to shoot them?).
The day after 9/11, I was taking Avery Schreiber’s advanced improv workshop. We didn’t feel funny. We felt terrified and furious and sad. So Avery told us to use it. We created some of the most biting, funny and edgy comedy we’d ever done. It inspired me to form a political sketch/improv comedy troupe (The Moving Targets). This was just before “The Daily Show” took off and I got a ton of push-back from people who would say, “how can you make comedy out of these things? Aren’t you afraid of offending people?” I knew then, and a nation of “Daily Show,” “Last Week Tonight,” and “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” know now, that sharp, political comedy strips away the bullshit, allows us to feel our feelings and then rise above them, or at least put them in perspective.
If you just want to be famous, get yourself a reality show (or even a YouTube channel). If you want to run the world, grow a pair.
This is awesome! Thank you for sharing this. 🙂
Believe comedians is what saves our sanity. If we couldn’t laugh we’d go crazy!
Exactly..and not good crazy…bad crazy.
Need Humor. Need it every day!
As a Canadian American, I voted for Hillary a few weeks ago.
I have cousins and a brother in MN, CA, and WA who are dyed in the wool Trump people. I still love them, but I can’t understand them for the life of me, and there is no way in hell I’d discuss this election with them anymore. Already learned my lesson.
As a Mom and a Gramma, I have great hopes for Hillary. I am seriously thin-skinned, but am filled with huge admiration for her because any woman running for POTUS has to have as thick a skin as possible, and I believe she does, AND she knows what she’s getting into. I didn’t vote for her because she’s a woman, I voted for her because I think she’s the best choice….easily…..
I’m on Season 4 of House of Cards, which of course if fiction, but I certainly feel like there is still a lot of truth to those circumstances.
I told my CDN husband I will be sleeping in on Wed morning since I may have to drink on Tuesday night – beginning directly after work. 😉
yeah, I just want to go to sleep early tomorrow and wake up Wednesday to find this is all over with.
I voted. I’m done . I’ve been watching John Oliver and Trever Noah non stop just to keep from dying of anxiety.
we voted last week and I am glad that is done. I just want tomorrow over with. I am going to be in an all day meeting tomorrow so it’s going to be extra sucky.
I will never forget Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert at the Rally for Sanity in Washington D.C.! Humor is the best diffuser but truly intelligent, biting, humor shines a light back on us and makes us think.
Can’t wait for this to be over!
b
I know. I can’t concentrate at all.
I have to be pedantic and correct her grammar in this line: “We need to begin having honest conversations about the oppressive tactics corporate comedians continue to do towards already-marginalized groups of people.”
It should be “We need to begin having honest conversations about the oppressive tactics corporate comedians continue to USE AGAINST already-marginalized groups of people.” You don’t “do tactics toward” people. They’re a tool to be “used.” You wouldn’t “do hammer to a nail.”
With that out of the way, I think it’s important to take a critical eye to comedy–is the bit poking at someone who really is marginalized? Making jokes about black people getting shot or people being raped generally aren’t very thought-provoking (or funny). But, pointing out the unpreparedness of a potential political leader in a way that is easy for the common person to understand? That’s doing the lord’s work.
For her to call political commentary (which is, in all likelihood, a reaction of something someone said about her) “oppressive” to “marginalized groups” (the marginalized rich white women, you know) to me is no different than Trump saying he’s going to shut down HuffPost.
There’s this thing called “Freedom of Speech” and it’s sort of a big deal in America.
it absolutely is a big deal. 🙂
Frankly, the comedy is about the only thing that’s kept me sane during this spectacle of an election season! If you can’t take criticism, get out of politics.
Yes!
Jon. Stewart.
That is how I got through Bush. Jon. Stewart. I need him back in my life now. The fact is that news can be depressing and sometimes you need to laugh (even bitterly) while you learn. And John Oliver’s comment on Stein was hilarious so there’s that…
Here’s the thing–there are comedians I don’t like. There are comedians that I skip when they do certain segments (I don’t watch all of Bill Maher all the tine). There are channels I watch and channels I have asked be changed when I am in public waiting rooms. That’s how you handle that as a normal Joe or Jane.
But, like you said, if you’re in public office, grow a thick skin and wait until the White House Correspondent’s Dinner and deal with the comedians you hate then. Don’t you, as a public servant or running for public service, have more important things to worry about than your own feelings? If you think someone is wrong about how they are presenting you, show the world how they are wrong by your actions. And realize even then there will be someone else to criticize you, because that’s the way the cookie crumbles. We want to live in a world where there is accountability for our politicians. Sometimes that accountability comes in the form of laughter and thank God, because we all could use a laugh.
I miss Jon Stewart so much.
I think I have two things to say about this. First, about comedy itself, it enables communication when it would otherwise not be possible. If you can make someone laugh about something, they will for a moment think about it from a different perspective than their usual one, and with the hyper-tribal nature of modern politics, comedy is often the only way to get a partisan to consider anything outside of their own opinion bubble. I’m not a huge Michael Moore fan, but his latest film is just him using comedy to talk to Trump voters about Hillary in a theater, and to his credit, none of them walked out, and many of them told him they would go home and think about what he had told them. That is an accomplishment these days.
Second, John Oliver has done more to advance progressive ideas in the actual world than Jill Stein has. How many issues out there do I (and pretty much everyone I know) know about only because John Oliver has taken the time and done the homework to figure it out, then gone on to make a show about it, that while comedic in nature, was mostly explanatory. Doing that was really risky for him, as it’s fairly easy to lose a comedy audience by asking too much of them. That tells me that comedy is only the vehicle he is using for the education he is presenting. Nobody else in comedy regularly puts out twenty minute segments on a single subject, and so far, I haven’t found him to be substantially wrong in his facts. There are always right-wing responses to his segments that cry foul about his politics, but I haven’t found one yet correcting his facts.
OK, I lied, I have three things: I’m proud of being a liberal. One of the main reasons for that pride is that I feel we liberals hold ourselves to a higher standard, and that when our sacred cows get gored by newly minted facts, we go with the facts instead of the cows. While I do agree with much of Jill Stein’s worldview, I still believe she would be a terrible president. President is a job, and there are many well known and understood qualities that are generally favorable traits for someone trying to do that job. She has very few of them. But mostly I get the feeling that she was laughing along and nodding her head about John Oliver until he got around to her. John Oliver was kind compared to what she would have gotten from Trump had she ever been successful enough to take a measurable percentage of his votes.
One more day. We can do this. Be calm and carry on, that’s what it says on the political blog from Missouri I read each morning, and I’m trying my best to comply…
One more day…yes…and thank you for this, yes John Oliver does educate us. Comedians very often do.
I think I get the point about “corporate comedians”. Comedians who appear on TV, especially those with their own shows, depend on advertisers and to some degree those who pay the piper call the tune.
But that’s been the case as long as we’ve had forms of mass communication. If the money weren’t coming from somewhere comedians would be standing on street corners yelling. We’re lucky we get the pointed satire and thoughtful, funny critiques that we do get. Not that long ago advertisers would have been terrified to touch the likes of John Oliver.
So TV comedians can’t take on every possible subject. That’s not a justification for throwing the comedic baby out with the bathwater.
One should always protect the comedic baby.
Comedians are society’s reality check. To paraphrase: “If I can’t laugh, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.”
yep!!
Comedians can help us to see another point of view, recognize ironies, and identify the truth about human nature. It’s great to laugh, laughing is good for our mental health, and comedians help us to learn to laugh at ourselves, a vital ingredient to leading a sane life.
Absolutely!