Wednesday, September 18, 2019

"Jew chink"

Apparently there's a brouhaha over Saturday Night Live (SNL) firing a comedian they just hired. Someone named Shane Gillis. The reason is because Gillis made jokes against Asians and Jews. Like calling the Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang a "Jew chink".

  1. I don't care which comedians SNL hires and fires. That's their business.
  2. I wouldn't vote for Andrew Yang. I like him better than most the other Democratic presidential candidates, but he's still a Democrat at heart. He's still liberal. And I think liberal and progressive politics are destructive to our nation, even from a secular perspective.
  3. Just because Gillis made racist and anti-Semitic jokes doesn't necessarily imply he's racist against Asians or that he's anti-Semitic. Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. I don't know Gillis well enough to say.
  4. To put it another way, do Gillis' jokes reflect his personal animus and racism against Asians? Do his jokes reflect an anti-China stance? Both? Neither? Of course I think racism is wrong, but I don't have a problem with being anti-China. In fact, I'm anti-China. The Chinese communist party is evil. What they're doing all around the world is evil. People are right to oppose China. That includes other Chinese who are opposed to China such as democratic Chinese in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
  5. For his part, Gillis replied to his firing: "I'm a comedian who pushes boundaries...My intention is never to hurt anyone but I am trying to be the best comedian I can be and sometimes that requires risks." As far as his comedy goes, Gillis' jokes about Asians and Jews simply weren't funny. However, from the standpoint of comedy, if a comedian is going to make jokes about race or even racist jokes, then at least the jokes ought to be funny. I think it was Jerry Seinfeld who said the following (paraphrased) in response to an anti-Semitic joke: I'm not offended as a Jew, I'm offended as a comedian!
  6. Gillis suggests these were old jokes from "10 years ago". Generally speaking, I'd agree we shouldn't hold people accountable for immature things they said in the past, though of course it depends on the specific statement at hand. It's possible for some statements to always remain wrong. However, a problem with Gillis' suggestion is he made recent jokes against Asians only a few months ago. And Prov 26:19 comes to mind.
  7. I'm of the opinion that in general comedians should be able to joke about controversial and sensitive issues including jokes about and even against various races and cultures. Russell Peters is a good example. Today there's too much quashing of anything that seems remotely inappropriate, and what's deemed inappropriate is often decided by liberal elites. Like SNL. The cancel culture.
  8. There's often a double standard when jokes against women, minorities, and/or Muslims are considered wrong, but it's acceptable to make jokes against men, whites, and/or Christians.

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