Patton Oswalt's epic Twitter rant about Trevor Noah, and the fair weather ally

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checked:
turns out he was doing George Bush invades Iraq jokes since 1991

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Look, I’ll give the guy a chance. His stand up is pretty funny. Those old jokes weren’t cool, but I won’t hold it against him forever or demand he get fired before he starts. Hopefully he’s evolving and the daily show will help him point his comedy at targets actually deserving of derision.

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He’s funny. That’s the job. Those jokes weren’t half as offensive as what Daniel Tosh puts out there on a weekly basis on the same network. Not to mention the writing staff of The Daily Show will probably author most of his new material in a similar voice (at least at first) as John Stewart. Quit worrying, The Daily Show will still be funny and watchable, and will still excoriate the political elite.

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No it’s not. It’s also not impossible to ignore jokes that don’t land instead of self-righteously immolating the comedian who write them. This seems to be forgotten among segments of the politically left.

As for not making jokes about people’s appearance, would you like, say, 45 quick examples of exactly these types of jokes from the Daily Show? Search for almost any segment about Chris Christie.

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You can perpetuate misogyny, homophobia, rape-culture, and racism without actually being any of those things, but still carrying water for all those teams.

If you want to trade a joke going over for a little responsibility for that then make the choice and own it.

OTOH, how many of us have consumer electronics or apparel exclusively made by unionized fair paid adults?

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I guess that’s why I can’t stand tosh. Oh well, to each his own.

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Did you forget?

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Jon Stewart makes fun of the looks of people whose politics he deplores. It’s kinda low, but not as low as just making fun of some random person you don’t know for their looks.

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But you only know that because you acknowledge the context in which that joke is told. In contrast to the usual context-free attacks from the Outrage-Industrial Complex that Patton is mocking here.

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Well, he does kind of write them himself…

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well said. we’re creating is a zero sum society where everything is politicized and disagreements on what’s funny, what’s offensive, etc…, are becoming capital offenses. The perpetual outrage, complaining about allies, etc… is ponderous. as Casey Kasem said, it’s like an up tempo record coming out of a fing death dedication.

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This right here. People are acting like The Daily Show is a one-man band and Trevor Noah is going to take a liberal oasis and turn it into a morass of insensitivity. Please, everyone, spread the word: The Daily Show HAS 15 STAFF WRITERS, and although the host has heretofore also served as a kind of editor-in-chief, I’d bet my dog’s fleece baby doll† that that role is going to fall to Elliot Kalan after Stewart, not Noah.

†My dog loves that gross fleece baby doll.

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Daniel Tosh is garbage, but that’s not because his jokes are offensive, it’s because they aren’t funny.

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Imagine if instead of #BeatsByDreidel it was #BeatsByAhmed and something about Arabs hitting their wives. Would that be a joke that “didn’t land”? How about something about the unattractiveness of women from a minority ethnicity? I don’t even need to bring a counter example for the uppercut thing, I don’t think.

What I really wanted to say, though, is that we’re in a serious low point if Patton Oswalt is now considered a leading thinker and moral compass.

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Twitter, by it’s very nature, does not leave a lot of room for nuance. Plus (as I have noticed, and I’m sure there are others who have noticed this) when you are texting (and isn’t that really all Twitter is) it’s sometimes difficult to tell the tone of the person speaking, sarcasm can come off sounding like ignorance or prejudice.

There are a lot of jokes that work verbally, but don’t work as text.

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Because Carlin.

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So looks like we’re through dissecting this topic from every conceivable viewpoint. And just a reminder - comedy clubs have exit doors, TVs have different channels, plus on/off controls, Twitter has an unfollow button, etc, and every individual is encouraged to reject whatever they personally find offensive by using these options. For themselves. Kind of like contributing quietly to a charity on your own as a way of directly expressing yourself rather than announcing to the world your intentions. No blowback comes to those who follow their hearts, quietly. The likeminded will surely do the same on their own, so really no soapboxes are needed. Parents will protect their children, and adults may watch out for themselves, as always.

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Was he ever really offensive though?

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Well, he had a track on “Parental Advisory” called “Rape Can Be Funny”, followed by “Feminist Blowjobs”, so I’m gonna go with AYUP.

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