Is America seeing the death of comedy?
A new 'Tucker Carlson Originals' episode on Fox Nation explores how comedians are under attack in the United States.
Noting that comedy is considered the hallmark of a free society, "Tucker Carlson Originals" is exploring how many jokesters are being forced to defend their gigs as the left’s gatekeepers target comics for making politically incorrect remarks.
Countless celebrities, television shows and companies have been subject to "getting canceled" in recent years. Driven largely by woke ideology, cancel culture is a form of modern banishment whereby the loudest voice tries to signal a public boycott based on certain ideas or perspectives.
One industry, though, is consistently under attack: comedy.
Vinnie Brand, who owns The Stress Factory Comedy Club in New Jersey and was featured in the Fox Nation episode, told Carlson he got into the business to allow comedians to say what they really feel.
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"As comics, our job is to kind of take the rough water and make fun of it," Brand told Tucker Carlson. "So, if we can't do that, for you, maybe you shouldn't necessarily go to a comedy club because here, the comics should be free to say what they want to say and let the marketplace decide whether it's good or bad."
Brand noted attendees should not be looking to comedians to determine their morality.
"If you came here to have your morals or ethics or to become educated, you should know that, as a cohort, we're some of the dumbest people on the planet," he joked. "That's why we're comedians, OK? That's why we're not lawyers and doctors and we're not scientists. We are all flawed in some way."
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Comedian Adam Carolla, who hosts one of the most popular podcasts in the world, opened up about how censoring comedians takes away the funny material.
"As a comedian, you don't want to get in a position where you can't say stuff that you're thinking, because that's the death of being a comedian," he told Fox Nation. "'You think this, you say this.' I feel like they drew first blood, you know. Like, when they go... ‘You've changed.’...You think I've changed, but I haven't changed. You've changed. You've gone nuts!"
While mainstream late-night hosts have often kowtowed to the left’s approved material, stand-up comic Jimmy Dore argued the role of a comedian is to show why the system is flawed.
"Comedy is supposed to show where the establishment narrative is wrong," he said, "and what comedians started to do was to forward the status quo and start to...embrace censorship. That's the opposite of comedy."
Humorist Jim Norton summed up the issues many of his peers are seeing in tough crowds across the country:
"The problem is the whole country, we're 300 million hall monitors and snitches and tattletales," he said. "I'm not giving a TED Talk. My job is to be funny on stage. Stop not trying to be smarter than you are. Stop trying to appear like you're the voice of reason we all need to hear. Shut your mouth."
To hear more from comedians and learn about the threat against free speech, subscribe to Fox Nation and stream ‘Tucker Carlson Originals.’
Fox News' Maddie Coggins contributed to this report.
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