Photo by Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP
Hacks star Hannah Einbinder weighed in on the idea that comedians have become limited or censored in recent years due to “political correctness,” and she flat-out called it “bullshit.”
A handful of comedians, including Jerry Seinfeld, have bemoaned the shift to using less outwardly offensive language in their sets or bits. Last month, Seinfeld blamed “the extreme left and PC crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people” for new guardrails on comedy as opposed to the freedom to say whatever they want about whomever they want.
Einbinder had comments about this while at a red carpet event and dismissed the notion that comedians have lost any of their freedom:
You can say anything. You just have to be a good joke writer, and you have to be smart. You can’t just be a bigot and be racist and homophobic and transphobic. Actually, you can, and you’ll have a wonderful career, because a lot of people will come out and support that. And that’s why it’s so ironic to me when people are like, “You can’t say anything!” It’s like, you’re doing arenas, what are you talking about? Your career is thriving because you’re playing to a market of people who want you to say fucked-up shit. They can say anything.
You want to talk about people who can’t say anything? There are people across this world whose freedom of speech is actually limited. Some fucking guy on stage who’s like, saying his wife’s a bitch. He can do that. No one’s really getting in trouble for that. I just think it’s bullshit.
Here’s the video from Twitter/X:
No but like I am in love with her pic.twitter.com/gLLKIP5hcB
— Liam Gareau (@liamgareau) May 10, 2024
Jon Stewart had similar comments during his set at this year’s Netflix Is a Joke Fest, saying: “What are you losing? You can’t say anything anymore. What do you want to say? Shut the fuck up. And by the way, the people who talk about anti-woke are the biggest fucking pussies you would ever find. I’m just so tired of it. The woke shit, you lose nothing. I’m a comedian. I’ve lost two words in 35 years. Honestly, are you that fucking unimaginative that you can’t figure it out?”
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]