Yep. Especially this guy. It looks so much worse as there is just no joke there. Just saying the bad words is not a joke.
Television Racist comedian fired from SNL
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This is pretty debatable. Taboo subjects are low-hanging fruit for comics regardless of their ability; the subject attracts the imaginatively lazy and the unskilled as well as the best.
Next he will be saying that Walter Jr was a good character.
Comedians are like any other person, I guess. They talk about the things they experience. I can see why some comedians would draw material from being told that they can’t say a certain thing, or tell certain jokes. It makes sense that they’d talk about their pushback to the whiners on twitter.
If it’s focused it can make for genuinely funny material. But if it’s just rallying against PC for the sake of it, you start to wonder what the point is. At least be funny with it.
Ah see, what he should have done is make some off colour jokes about child abuse. That's acceptable comedy.
What's this about then?
Last year, when James Gunn was fired for his "edgy" comedy which boiled down to jokes about raping children, he received support from celebrities, comedians and the public. Eventually getting rehired by Disney.
This guy has been condemned for his equally "edgy" comedy. I doubt a string of Hollywood celebrities nor the public will be defending him.
For "edgy", read shite, because that's what it is, in both cases.
So it would appear that making jokes about ethnicity is a no no, but jokes about child abuse, paedophilia and rape is ok.
One of the celebrity cries for Gunn was that "this zero tolerance policy was wrong".
I agree.
Not sure what's funny. I though Gunn being fired was ridiculous, but that if that's allowed then surely there are no real limits.
Okay.
The video in the OP seems like a Podcast of people trying to be funny by being offensive. It's not funny but then all comedy is subjective.
All seems very hypocritical, but then again what's new?
It caught me off guard.
I obviously was expecting a bad comparison, which was why I asked, but bloody hell.
There are quite a few differences between the two though.
Gunn's jokes were from a decade before when he was in a different phase of his career making schlock films, Gillis' were from just last year. Gunn's jokes were generalised, Gillis called someone who is currently trying to get a presidential nomination a chink jew. Gunn's jokes were constructed as obvious jokes (i.e one liners on twitter), Gillis' were part of rambling conversations. Gunn apologised, Gillis didn't. The backlash against Gunn was instigated by someone with a political grudge against him who had done similar to other people he disagreed with politically, the backlash against Gillis was just a standard twitter backlash.
How you get fired on your day off?
By not telling your boss you were taking a day off?
Sorry, but how can anyone defend this bloke? He's being openly and obviously racist as part of a normal conversation... it's not like he's doing a sketch or telling jokes (which by the way I still wouldn't be on board with) he's just being racist in a conversation.
Seriously, if you're defending this clown I suggest you pick a different hill to die on.
Seriously, if you're defending this clown I suggest you pick a different hill to die on.
If you watched that clip without knowing any context about the participants or the medium, I would defy anyone to come to the conclusion that it's comedy being delivered by a comedian.
It's a racist screed that deserves to be called out as such. The sort of thing you might hear on KKK TV.
Although I'll defend it as free speech, there's absolutely no way to defend it as being intellectually genuine.
It's a racist screed that deserves to be called out as such. The sort of thing you might hear on KKK TV.
Although I'll defend it as free speech, there's absolutely no way to defend it as being intellectually genuine.
I don't know how repeatedly using racial epithets in the context of a simple conversation can be explained away as being edgy. There was no wit, no punchline, no subtlety, just two white dudes spewing ignorance and racial superiority over another race. Fuuck this guy, I'm not having that. He can go back to being racist in the bumblefeck hills of Pennsylvania where he rode from.
I’m all for an edgy joke but chink isn’t one of those grey areas. It’s been a no go word for a long time in the public eye. There are also certain ways to present jokes that are actually funny. This guy is just being a cynical cnut. And racist.
Man I don’t know.
It's not even about presenting a joke as funny, just presenting it as an actual joke would help.
It's one thing saying something offensive on stage or tweeting something offensive as a one liner as people will (generally) get from the context and structure that there's a level of performance involved and it's not to be taken at face value. A chat on a podcast isn't the same thing. Something that should be obvious to a professional comedian.
I’d say he was trying to be funny in a casual conversation as opposed to doing a routine. Cynical asshole is not what’s hot anymore.
Seems like a good decision since SNL needs actual funny people to save it from being shit. This bloke just looks like a boorish twat rather than a comedian.
Never
I thought that Sarah Silverman joke was ok:
It is an uncomfortable truth that a joke can be both funny and racist, which is different than saying that racism is funny. Consider the time Sarah Silverman went on Conan O'Brien and joked about being told to write "I hate chinks" on a form to weasel out of jury duty: "I said, 'I'm not going to put that on there just to get out of jury duty. I don't want people to think that about me. ' So instead I wrote, 'I love chinks.' And who doesn't?"
That works because it lampoons racism by subverting expectations. Importantly, it does it without generalising the inferiority of the socially disempowered.
Louis CK, Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle all do the same when they make jokes about race.
The sacked SNL guy didn't.
The point being that the word chink is not out of bounds. This new guy just said it to be derogatory, it wasn't funny. So feck him.
Both were examples of being offensive and passing it off as comedy. There was no substance to either, in both cases they were being offensive for the sake of it.
Right. But all the other stuff I pointed out was different, which is why people didn't react the same way. Context matters.
The only context that really matters is that Gunn made his "jokes" during a different time.
That word is pretty offensive to people of Chinese ethnicity, and it is out of bounds. Silverman said it in 2001, so different times - but even then there was backlash.
Now that’s actually funny and a good example of how to do a race/culture joke. Chappelle, Desus & Mero, Jeff Ross are in that ball park too. And really, you can say almost anything if you prepare it the right way.
So "chink" is racist. What's a good racist white slur? All I can really think of is "cracker" 
I had assumed Chappelle's Michael Jackson schtick was going to be the example.
It's almost as though context is important.
It wasn't because it was different. The reason Gunn was the example is because as is the case here, his "jokes" were done with the sole purpose of causing offense.
As is being discussed by others here, it's perfectly acceptable to make offensive jokes and for them to be funny. It's when you are being offensive and passing it off as a joke where there's a degree of hypocrisy around it.
Has Ricky Gervais weighed in with his canned statement on taking offence to things yet?
Poor taste and not funny. Very bro culture which isn't going to fly for SNL.
Surprisingly, his take is a bit more nuanced than that.
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I actually listened to him on the Sam Harris podcast recently and didn’t disagree with most of what he said. He’s a bit of a bore though. Loves the sound of his own voice.
SNL is awful. It's almost like the shit they put out was written in a few days and performed without adequate rehearsals.
It really is. I'm surprised Kate McKinnon didn't bail this season.