Comics’ Intolerance Is Worse Than a Bad Joke

Patrick Cole’s article concerning the use of the Los Angeles riots as material for stand-up comedy (“Comics Cope With the L.A. Riots,” Calendar, May 11) gave significant consideration to the propriety of comics harvesting new jokes from the riot.

There is rarely anything written that causes the public to believe that stand-up comics spend much time thinking about the wildly varied and pointed messages they deliver. That’s because, often, they don’t.

Yet, if one believes that the recent turmoil in Los Angeles might have been avoided by greater understanding and empathy between people, then it would follow that those who are given the opportunity to express themselves to large numbers of attentive listeners have a responsibility to consider the content of their message.

Many stand-up comics refuse to shoulder this responsibility, even though they communicate to hundreds of people every night. Instead, they continue to do what they have been doing during countless hours of television and club appearances: explore anything and everything in search of laughter, many times without pausing to consider exactly what it is they are saying.

Of course this doesn’t apply to every stand-up performer, especially major talents who have risen to the top precisely because they do pay close attention to their messages.

But there is such an enormous amount of thoughtless, irresponsible comedy out there that I believe all comedy performers share in the task of turning things around.

I propose that comedians take a look at what has happened in Los Angeles and reflect on their “take” of the world we actually live in, perhaps gauging their ethnic and racially oriented comments against the fires we saw on television.

The posture of a stand-up comic is often that of a know-it-all, so it’s not surprising that most messages in comedy are delivered with an air of superiority. Certain notorious comics have taken this haughty posture to nauseating extremes, provoking a defense of free speech but leaving most of us quaking at the changing parameters of “comedy.”

When a stand-up delivers the umpteenth joke about someone from another culture working at a gas station or convenience store, they do more than display their joke-writing lassitude. They contribute to ignorance, intolerance and the class conflict that we now know is at the heart of America’s woes.

The ethnocentric vulgarities of stand-up can sometimes show comedy at its worst: making jokes about the people who believe hard work leads to opportunity, and using free speech not to illuminate or inform but simply to denigrate others. Too many stand-ups are “class clowns” in a new and terrible way.

Some might say that stand-up comedy is doomed to be banal. You have to shoot for the common denominator, and in clubs people are often drinking alcohol. But comedy should never contribute to the notion that some people are better than others because of their occupation, or where they shop, or what kind of car they drive. Or, heaven forbid, their race. This kind of lazy junk comedy could disappear tomorrow and no one would miss it.

I’m not asking for comedy performers to be politically correct, since “PC” is an ever-changing subjective wish list. And it’s just too much to hope that taste and wit would always be prerequisites for getting up to do “comedy.” Besides, comedians should rattle the cage, tip over the furniture and make a mess. That’s what they do.

But too often they measure the impact of their messages only by the amount of laughter, barking, whooping and applause that follows a punch line. They should, as all artists do, actually think about what they are saying. The healing can begin tonight, at 8, on stages throughout this city.