John Cleese reckons political correctness is killing comedy—and strangling freedom.
We Can't Have Comedy and Be Politically Correct at the Same Time
… I’ve been warned recently, don’t go to most university campuses because the political correctness has been taken from being a good idea—which is, let’s not be mean particularly to people who are not able to look after themselves very well, that’s a good idea—to the point where any kind of criticism of any individual or group can be labelled cruel. And the whole point about humor, the whole point about comedy—and believe you me, I’ve thought about it—is that all comedy is critical. Even if you make a very inclusive joke—like, How do you make God laugh? Tell him your plans—that’s about the human condition, it’s not excluding anyone, it’s saying we all have all these plans that probably won’t come and isn’t it funny that we still believe they’re going to happen. So that’s a very inclusive joke, but it’s still critical. All humor is critical. If we start saying, oh, we musn’t criticise or offend them, then humour is gone, and with humour goes a sense of proportion, and then, as far as I’m concerned, you’re living in 1984.
UPDATE: George Carlin: Political Correctness is fascism pretending to be manners … [hat tip Law of Markets]
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