Leno Rocks With Diff Between Harm & Harmless Fun

Jay Leno is the latest celeb to address cancel culture, but with a twist that distinguishes between harmful words & harmless fun: Under the ever-evolving rules of comedy, he opined on a popular podcast, “if you don’t conform to them, you’re out of the game” … and maybe should be. “Now, everyone has a voice,” he said, “And, you have to change the material to the times you live in.” In other words, negative fall out from skits is not always about cancel culture, but can sometimes really be about doing the right thing.

Leno, the ex-host of The Tonight Show recalled how he came under criticism for making Asian jokes based on the problems the US was having with its North Korea enemy, but since apologized in a highly publicized press release: “At the time I did those jokes, I genuinely thought them to be harmless … [but] … I do not consider this particular case to be another example of cancel culture but a legitimate wrong.”

As it happens, I recently was at the DC Improv to take in the Tony Rock (brother of Chris) Show that included a lot of the usual gender, race & lgbt jokes; he also especially hit hard on how Americans are dealing with the Covid pandemic, in which hundreds of thousands have DIED. Being himself black & 80% of the audience being black, the inherently sensitive material focused largely on the African American community; but, Tony seemed at the same time to strike universal themes that everyone there could relate to. As a result, he had the audience in stitches, despite the dark reality haunting much of the material. For instance, about that reported resistance among blacks to be “the first in line” to get free vaccinations from the government & their suspicions about Uncle Sam’s motives: “Since when did blacks “IN THE HISTORY OF THIS COUNTRY” ever get to be first in line? Surely, there were sons & daughters & spouses in the audience who had lost a loved one to Covid. But, Tony managed to hit the right note between Leno’s harm and harmless fun.

Davd Soul