Comedian Says Politics Is Replacing Comedy on Campus

Comedian David Deeble says that progressive politics is replacing comedy on college campuses.

Deeble wrote a column for Ricochet.com detailing his experiences doing stand-up on college campuses. Deeble echoed sentiments expressed by comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock, who have both said that they will no longer play college campuses because of heightened political correctness.

Deeble argues that many students are no longer able to hear jokes in the manner in which they were intended. Now, students driven by social justice politics are more likely to opt for the least charitable interpretation of a comedian’s joke. Or even worse, they will insist that an innocent joke had an unintended yet harmful impact on the community.

Whatever happened to taking things in the spirit in which they were intended? To assuming good intentions in people most of the time? To poise? Look, I get it: ours is an era of contentious politics. Republicans don’t want their sons marrying Democrats and Democrats don’t want their sons marrying women.

There’s just too much material you can’t do on campus. I tell audiences how I remember when you had to wait until they were born to determine their gender: “Nowadays, of course, you have to wait until they’re eighteen.” At colleges? Maybe a quickly-stifled laugh followed by widespread embarrassed gasps.

We’re at a point now where if you still have a sense of humor you’re considered part of the problem. So no, I have no interest in returning to the college circuit – and just as assuredly I won’t be missed. It’s not that today’s college students have no sense of humor. It’s that no one wants to be the first one to laugh. 

In March 2017, Breitbart News published a column about the death of liberal humor. The column focused on the popular Broadway show Avenue Q, which has been deemed more offensive by certain liberals in more recent years despite their unabashed love for the show when it debuted in 2003.
You can read the entirety of Deeble’s piece here.