I started noticing it about 15 years ago. I went to a comedy club with some friends. The comedian was doing his set and in the middle of it he tells a midget in a porn joke. There was delayed laughter. Why, you ask? In my group there was a midget. It’s okay, that’s how she labeled herself. Everyone wanted to make sure she laughed before they laughed. Boy, did she laugh so loud! She has such a great sense of humor about being short. Miss that woman.

We lost our childlike funny bone in this country. Moral superiority must reign supreme! We are now a nation of joy vampires. I truly believe that the internet had something to do with it. (Thanks, Al Gore) I mean, pop culture started it, but the internet took off running with the downward spiral. In the early days, it wasn’t as bad as long as you stayed off certain sites. When social media started taking off, bullying each other for what might offend them became easier.

Everything now is sexist, racist, literally Hitler, promotes rape culture, causes global warming, or makes puppies cry.

Comedy has gone downhill lately. Actually, even worse than that. It’s like a plane that’s lost 3 of its engines and is hurling towards a polar bear chilling on a chuck of ice. I truly believe that the Unknown Comic was funnier than some of the famous stand-ups working today.

It’s hard to do comedy with a book of restricted words & phrases. It can be done, but why should it have to? More importantly, how can we save ourselves from a lifetime of misery and hopelessness that this will cause?

Some of my favorite comedy came from the post-depression era and the 70’s. Comedy during the post-depression era was pure escapement, because that’s what the country needed. In the 70’s, there was some political humor, but it wasn’t as harsh as it is today. Some of my favorite comics from then were George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and Don Rickles. Think any of them would have a shot today? There’s no way they would have been as mainstream today as they were back then. One of my favorite movies, ‘Blazing Saddles’, would never be able to be made today.  Even ‘The Office (US)’ couldn’t be made now.

We’ve bullying ourselves into being miserable. I think that’s one the biggest jokes we played on ourselves. My advice, to save yourselves from loathing life, is don’t listen to the people trying to put words in gulag or shackles on canned laughter. If its funny, laugh! If you don’t find it funny, don’t laugh. It’s really that simple. Like Stephen Fry said,  “It’s now very common to hear people say, ‘I’m rather offended by that.’ As if that gives them certain rights. It’s actually nothing more… than a whine. ‘I find that offensive.’ It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. ‘I am offended by that.’ Well, so f*cking what?”