This past Saturday, Bill Burr hosted Saturday Night Live. I am aware of his humor, but he's not really on my radar.
To my surprise, The Daily Beast wrote a scathing review of Burr's Comedy:
Again, I don't know how many times we can say this here at Beacon of Speech, there is no "correct" way to do comedy. The Daily Beast has every right to critique his performance, but here's where they cross the line.
"And that doesn’t change the fact that a contingent of Americans whose rights are vulnerable are appalled." - Kevin Fallon
Uh, where are we going here? You can say Burr was funny. You can say Burr wasn't funny. You can say Burr was kinda funny. You can say Burr was offensive. What you can't say is that Bill Burr violated your rights. That is not what happened at all.
On multiple occasions, I have lamented outlets like CNN and The Daily Beast treating SNL like News. It is not. It is a comedy show.
Comedy should not be in the cross hairs of culture wars, but sadly, it is.
I came across this nugget of comedy gold on a Norm MacDonald Fansite:
I laughed really hard. Then I considered sharing the meme to my homepage. All of a sudden, anxiety set in. What if young relatives or co-workers are offended? Uggh, better not.
Editor's Note: So now it's on the Blog?
Why do I belong to a Norm MacDonald fansite? Because they embrace the Feng Shui of Norm. Sometimes funny, sometimes terrible, sometimes awkward, and sometimes material that crosses the line. Good comedy is dangerous and unafraid to fail. That's my belief, but there's lots of different people out there.
I have a good friend who never posts anything offensive.
But was it funny?
No.
Now The Daily Beast isn't totally populated by a staff of Killjoys, I read this article on the same day and found it both funny and enlightening: 9 (Kinda) Hilarious Lessons From My 99 Days on a COVID Ventilator
Not only am I rooting for Laura Lyons personally, but professionally.
Yesterday, LeBron James won his 4th NBA Championship, first with the Lakers. Every sports outlet gushed over his accomplishments and local outlets praised LeBron as a Hometown Hero.
By the end of the day, this article at the Babylon Bee caught my eye: Powerful: LeBron James Pulls Over To Lecture Homeless Man On His White Privilege
Bad timing, non-politically correct, unrelated to basketball....but funny.
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