Comedian Steve Harvey isn’t a political guy. He keeps America laughing and entertained, and he leaves the red and blue game to the nerds.
However, Harvey says his job has gotten a lot harder because of “political correctness.” In fact, Harvey says this left-wing speech policing has actually “killed comedy”
It’s therefore making it impossible for comedians to actually feel comfortable telling jokes. Here’s why he’s absolutely correct…
Harvey is Right
Harvey has mostly been on TV hosting shows like Family Feud and Judge Steve Harvey over the past few years. Yet, there was the day when this guy was lightning on stage; he would get crowds laughing with his brilliant stand-up comedy sets.
The thing is, Harvey doesn’t want to go back to that because “cancel culture” makes him fear for the future of his career if he tells one “wrong” joke. As Harvey noted, he would only go back to stand-up if he was about to retire, since the risk of being cancelled is so high.
As Harvey said, standup comedians with sponsors are completely chained in terms of what they can actually say. Tell one joke that’s considered offensive to some special interest or protected group and you’re completely toast.
Harvey went on to level very strong accusations against liberal Hollywood cancel culture, saying comedians from Kevin Hart to Chris Rock feel the same as him and are undermined by cancel culture.
Steve Harvey has no plans for another stand-up comedy special due to cancel culture https://t.co/s0mtA8tMT0
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) January 11, 2022
Is There a Way Out?
According to Harvey, anyone who relies on sponsors is chained down; they have to hold their tongue and be politically correct. The only way out is to go from a “subscription-driven” model like Dave Chapelle, where the outrage roars of the woke crowd don’t take you down.
As we see with Chapelle, the whining and protests of the woke can still have a big negative impact. Leftist staff at Netflix even threatened a mass walkout to protest a joke they didn’t like about transgender people in Chapelle’s latest set.
Liberal comedian Patton Oswalt wrote a long apology, just for taking a selfie with Chapelle! Oswalt and others like him should write an apology for not being funny!
Harvey is far from the only one saying this. Jerry Seinfeld and many others have said they no longer do stand-up because it’s just not worth the hassle of scolds who try to police and run their jokes if they’re not politically correct.
"We’re in the cancel culture now,” @IAmSteveHarvey said during the Television Critics Association press tour.
"Nobody can say anything he wants to—Chris Rock can’t, Kevin Hart can’t, Cedric the Entertainer can’t…I can go down the list."https://t.co/WgZzX5BX31
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) January 12, 2022
Here’s the Thing…
Here’s the thing: you can’t control whose feelings get hurt by what. If you don’t like a comedian, don’t watch them.
Harvey is right that trying to cut sponsors and end careers over political correctness is a nightmare. Is the result a country in which humor is now illegal and where the humorless woke crowd gets to tell us what to think?
No thanks!
