Reason: Zach Weissmueller & Jim Epstein- 'Comedy, Outrage and College: What We Saw at The Can We Take a Joke?'

Source:Reason Magazine- comedian Gilbert Gottfried at Can We Take a Joke.

"The documentary feature Can We Take a Joke? premiered at the film festival Doc NYC this Friday, and Reason TV was on the scene at a pre-party being held at the Comedy Cellar's Village Undergound, where filmmakers, comedians, and free speech advocates were eager to sound off about free speech and comedy following a week of high-profile anti-speech protests on college campuses like Yale and Mizzou.

"Maybe the events of this week signal that we're reaching peak crazy and that people are going to say, 'Whoa, this is a little too nutty,'" says director Ted Balaker. "But on the other hand, the outrage mob could just keep plowing ahead."

Follow @canwetakeajoke on Twitter or Facebook to learn more about the film and when and where you might see it.

Approximately 3 minutes. Shot by Jim Epstein. Edited by Zach Weissmueller. Music by Latche Swing.

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From Reason Magazine 

"The documentary feature Can We Take a Joke? premiered at the film festival Doc NYC this Friday, and Reason TV was on the scene at a pre-party being held at the Comedy Cellar's Village Undergound, where filmmakers, comedians, and free speech advocates were eager to sound off about free speech and comedy following a week of high-profile anti-speech protests on college campuses like Yale and Mizzou.

"Maybe the events of this week signal that we're reaching peak crazy and that people are going to say, 'Whoa, this is a little too nutty,'" says director Ted Balaker. "But on the other hand, the outrage mob could just keep plowing ahead."

Approximately 3 minutes. Shot by Jim Epstein. Edited by Zach Weissmueller. Music by Latche Swing." 

From Reason Magazine

One of the comedians up there, I think it was the female comedian there said and I'm paraphrasing that people have to realize what humor and a jokes are. Unless you're a Socialist, or something humor and entertainment is exactly that. 

You're not trying to change the world simply with entertainment, but comment on in a humorous way what you see in the world. And a smart comedian will use their humor to also inform people about what is going on, because they follow the news. And in a lot of cases talking to people who know everything about Hollywood and who is sleeping with who and what shoes someone wore when they went out to lunch, but perhaps not even sure what the capital of the state is let alone the United States. So someone like that could actually learn a lot from a smart comedian, if they bother to listen can stay off their smartphone for more than five-minutes at a time.

Without free speech, bloggers and comedians might as well sell life insurance door to door. Perhaps park cars, or get some other jobs that is not nearly as much fun as parking cars and selling insurance door to door. We shouldn't have to worry that if we say this and make fun of that, then this oversensitive group or that one, will be offended. Because their blood pressure is already as high as a skyscraper, because they don't smoke pot and simply don't know how to relax. 

We also shouldn't have to worry about if we make fun of this or that politician or that movement, that somehow we let whatever movement that has been just offended down, setting back fifty-years or whatever. That if we make jokes about labor unions, then people will have a harder time organizing. Or if we make fun of corporations, that will damage Wall Street, or whatever.

We have a very liberal First Amendment and constitutional right to free speech in America. Without it, again comedians and bloggers might as well go work for the state, or something and retire with their pensions after twenty-years or whatever. And because little things like free speech, Right to Privacy and property rights. And because of these great liberal individual rights Americans have a lot of individual freedom in America. Even the freedom to say and do things that others may not approve of. 

But the people who disagree with us can privately and publicly express their disagreement with us, as well as do and say things we don't approve of. That is called liberal democracy and freedom and with what comes with those great things is also responsibility. 

So yeah, we have the right even to be assholes, but people have the right to tell us how big of an asshole we really are. Or even think we're assholes when the only thing we're guilty of speaking the truth or being honest. 

You can also see this post at Real Life Journal, on Blogger.