Irreverence is what comedy is all about, and every comedian from Lenny Bruce to Richard Pryor, George Carlin and Bill Maher use it to make their points. The “house nigger” joke Bill Maher blurted speaking to smug Republican Ben Sasse was referring to the deep racism in the south, of which Arkansas is one of the worst states. When Ben Sasse suggested he come work in the fields, Bill pulled that out to ridicule Arkansas’s history of slavery and racism. Bill Maher has ridiculed the south often for its deep seated racism, which still thrives in the south. I grew up in Atlanta, and know whereof I speak. Ben Sasse knew what he was saying, but then pretends this sanctimonious indignation at the joke to cover his own pretentious ass, feigning being offended, when he really just resents Bill Maher’s honesty and being on target.
This is a ridiculous, childish article, written by someone who either has no idea how comics work, or has an agenda to police language, and thought. According to this way of thinking, the word “nigger” should be removed everywhere it appears from Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn,” as was proposed in recent years by those who actually want the ugly and abhorrent history of racism in America white washed and forgotten, rather than learned and faced. Black educators were the most adamant against removing the word, because that would have negated everything Mark Twain was trying to say in the book about racism, classism and slavery.
Bill Maher’s show “Politically Incorrect” was removed from network for comments he made about the 911 terrorists, because of political pressure from the Bush administration. Maher said: ”People keep calling the terrorists cowards. They weren’t cowards. Call them anything else you want to, evil, whatever, but when you’re willing to fly a plane into a building for your beliefs, you’re not a coward.” And this is what got him removed from network television. He wasn’t going along with the shallow, disingenuous bullshit that was being put out at the time like some dime store salve.
Bill Maher, and other comedians right now such as Kathy Griffin and Colbert, are making politically incorrect statements and acts to address the raging river of manure coming from Donald Trump and his administration. The difference is, what they’re doing is lampooning hypocrisy, obscenity, and lies. They are not the liars, they are the truth tellers. And the biggest difference in what they’re doing compared to what Donald Trump is doing, is that when Trump says Mexicans are rapists, he wants to ban Muslims, and he can grab women by the pussy if he wants to, he’s not joking. He’s dead serious. Trump tried to sue Bill Maher for making jokes about him, but it was thrown out. When Trump says he’s tired of political correctness, he only means it where he’s concerned. He doesn’t like Bill Maher’s lack of political correctness, or Kathy Griffin’s, or Colbert’s, because he knows there’s truth in jest, and comedy is much more powerful than Donald Trump.
