JGSS Episode 026 - For Chuckles Sake
I called my third album “American Apathy” because I think all jokes are a form of apathy. All art, really. Me being a professional joke-teller is the most apathetic part about me. I remember once, I did a set that involved me cracking-wise on some social subjects. I was talking to a girl after the show, and at some point, I mentioned that I don’t always vote, and she was stunned. And furious. She questioned how I could talk about society and not actively and constantly participate in it. And I think that’s a major confusion a lot of people have about art and society. I MAY just happen to care about the thing I’m talking about on stage, but it’s not implicit. I’m talking about something on stage because it has comedic value. And that’s really it. I’m not trying to make a point, or change a mind, or do anything noble. I’m trying to be entertaining.
I feel like most political comedy shows on TV are just slightly funnier (and sometimes not even that) versions of Hannity or Rachel Maddow. Hannity and Maddow already present news in an entertaining way. What differentiates them from a straight up comedy show about society and politics? It used to be that the comedy show put funny above viewpoint. Hannity and Maddow are restricted to a point of view that they believe will make the country better. Comedy should just take the funniest stand. And that’s it.
People now take serious umbrage with the points of view–I’m not talking someone being offended, I’m talking people being seriously mad about only the position taken on an issue–of comedians on political comedy shows. I think those people are ridiculous. But, I do also put the blame on a lot of people in comedy who seem to take on that mantle to become slightly jokier journalists or commentators. That’s not what you are. And to take that on is equal parts insulting to the funny-makers and the news-tellers.
It’s not that I don’t care about the world around me or that I’m some sort of nihilist. But when I’m on stage, it’s about the funny. I think there’s a lot of people giving a big ol’ eye roll to the new style of social and political comedy. Just Google “clapter.”
If a comic is saying something with the express purpose to change someone’s mind to that opinion or to only gather people with those beliefs, what differentiates him from a preacher or a politician? I think the most a comedic performance can do, besides purely entertain, is to get people to think. And that is important.
When I do a bit that pokes holes in something like, let’s say, religion, I’m not trying to convince people to become atheists or to curate an audience of all non-believers. I hope you leave the show with those jokes in your mind and they actually stimulate your brain on a subject that may have laid dormant or just unknowingly unaddressed. Then that means you actually think on it. You look at my little, jokey points and address them within yourself. And I don’t really care if you say to yourself, “No, fuck that, there are things I know that will always make me believe in God,” or, “He’s right, there probably is no god,” I’m just happy that you actually have, or have reclaimed, your beliefs after firmly considering them. I think a major problem with society isn’t what people believe but that they don’t constantly question what they believe. So even if that belief doesn’t move, at least you’re pressuring it in its current position at all times.














