Students Offended by Play About How They're Always Offended

There’s a really hilarious film that came out in the mid-90s called “PCU” — a double entendre acronym for “Port Chester University” and “Politically Correct University” —  that is a must-watch for all college-age students if they want to understand the silliness of the social justice crusades they see swirling around them on campus.

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The students at Brandeis University may miss out on that laughfest, unfortunately; their school administrators recently canceled the production of a play by a renowned playwright because it committed the sin of portraying student activism in a less than stellar light and student activists complained it was [heavy sigh] offensive.

Renowned playwright Michael Weller conceived a play, Buyer Beware, that mocks activist students and their hostility to politically incorrect humor. He planned to stage a production of it at Brandeis University, the institution that granted him a Creative Arts Award.

But administrators cancelled the production after students complained that its subject matter—easily offended students—was offensive, according to The College Fix.

Buyer Beware is about a student who discovers the works of the un-P.C. comedian Lenny Bruce and attempts to stage a Bruce-like production. This antagonizes activist students affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the university, since an important donor is coming to visit on the day of the production and the administration would rather avoid controversy.

Lenny Bruce was notorious in his act for using the n-word in an attempt to render it meaningless (which is not unlike what rap artists have actually succeeded in doing). Bruce was controversial when he performed in the 50s and he’s controversial now — but college campuses used to be the “safe space” for controversial figures like Bruce.

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To Weller’s heartbreak, that is no longer the case.

According to The College Fix, some who found the play offensive had never actually read it. But this quote is one for the record books:

“The issue we all have with it is that [Weller] is an older, straight [sic] gendered, able-bodied and white man. It isn’t his place to be stirring the pot,” said Andrew Childs ’18 in a phone interview for a Hoot article published on Sept. 29. Andrew Childs is an Undergraduate Department Representative for the Theater Arts Department and a member of the season’s “play selection committee.” [Emphasis mine.]

Young Mr. Childs is apparently in the business of deciding what people’s “places” in life are. That sounds an awful lot like stereotyping, doesn’t it?

Good thing these mean kids have an administration willing to protect them from being shown a play that forces them to confront what they are. God forbid they actually learn something about life while they’re preparing for their entrance into the world.

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