Comedian Howie Mandel — who is not exactly known for edgy humor — took a swipe at woke attacks on comedians and comedy and insisted that comedy hurts no one.
The former Deal or No Deal host appeared on the Stand Up World podcast this week and told host Mike Binder that woke attacks on comedy are an attack on the art of comedy itself.
“If you think of comedy as an art, they started telling us there are certain colors you can’t use,” Mandel said of the woke attack on his profession, Christian Toto noted.
“If you’re a painter you shouldn’t say, ‘You can paint anything you want, but don’t use black, don’t use any yellows, and it’s really not right to use blue.’ Art suffers, and there isn’t anything we shouldn’t talk about,” he explained.
Indeed, as far as Mandel is concerned comedy originates from a dark place.
“All humor comes out of darkness. That’s why the Tragedy and Comedy masks are so close together,” he said. “If you’re a little kid and you go to the circus, you’re laughing at a clown falling down. You’re laughing at the misfortune of somebody you don’t know,” Mandel insisted.
Mandel added, “If something bad doesn’t happen, it’s not funny. If something embarrassing doesn’t happen, it’s not funny. If something awkward doesn’t happen, it’s not funny.”
The comedian, who is well-known for suffering with OCD, went on to say that comedy is a lifeline for him. “There is a thin line between making myself laugh … and being just crushed by darkness,” he said.
He also thinks that there is no harm in comedy. After reminding the audience that comedian Gilbert Gottfried lost his job as the voice of the Aflac duck because he made a joke about the Japanese tsunami that some felt was insensitive, Mandel railed about how the woke got Gilbert fired.
“You don’t have to laugh at the joke. You don’t have to like the joke. You don’t even have to get the joke. You’re going to remove his livelihood … for this joke that you don’t like, that isn’t even pointed at one particular person,” Mandel exclaimed.
“Who is damaged by this? Who has ever been damaged by comedy? Ever? Ever?” Mandel asked.
The America’s Got Talent judge blasted the woke attackers, adding, “But they’re not damaged. They’re complaining.”
Despite all this, though, Mandel also said that he thinks the woke are starting to lose their power.
“I think the pendulum swung really far into the woke,” Mandel said, “and I feel people like Shane Gillis and Bert Kreischer and Ari Shaffir and all these Austin comics … these people who don’t give a shit about that and believe in the purity of what [stand-up comedy] is — and it is an art form –are bringing the pendulum back, and they’re selling bigger numbers than anybody that is trying to conform to what you believe you need to conform to.”
On a side note, Mandel opened his part of the podcast recreating what happened on his own podcast when UFC chief Dana White walked off Mandel’s show after a warm introduction.
Back in February, Mandel invited White onto his podcast, but after an effusive welcome to the show, White bluntly stated, “I am so f–king tired of doing podcasts. I am literally done with them. I am not doing any more podcasts,” and he stood up and walked out.
White has never made any comment on why he walked out on Mandel and Mandel has insisted it was not a setup, and he has no clue what set off the fight promoter and caused him to walk out like that.
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