Comedians like to push boundaries until that very fine line of what is deemed acceptable and unacceptable is squeezed to its very limit. That, to me, is what the very best of comedy can do. Regardless of the situation that we find ourselves in today when it comes to what can and cannot be said, which is primarily being lead by 'activists' on social media, a movie such as Ben Stiller's "Tropic Thunder" existing in this maddening stratosphere, released a little more than 10 years ago, shows just how much things have changed at the movies the last decade.
Forget about “Blazing Saddles” — every once in a while I try to remind people that recent comedies like “Tropic Thunder,” “Step Brothers,” “Anchorman,” and “Superbad” would just not be able to get made today. Not in this heavily politicized, social-media-driven world. Sure, go ahead and disagree with me, but this is real. This is the world we live in. Comedy is in dire straits at the moment.
Every comedy I mentioned thus far would be a landmine of triggered outrage waiting to happen in 2021. Sadly, these days, intent doesn't matter as much as perception. There isn't a firm line on what's funny and what's in poor taste anymore, but everyone loves to point out when they think that a line has been crossed.
I wrote on social media about Dave Chappelle’s subversive “Sticks and Stones,” his latest Netflix stand-up special. It’s a feat of audacious, wire-walking comedy. Chappelle went there in “Sticks and Stones” by castigating wokesters and the PC movement. It was an act of sheer chutzpah from Chappelle, but it worked, as the jokes weren’t only just funny but came with a biting sting. Why then does it have a tepid 35% rotten rating? That 99% audience rating showcases the divide between “woke” critics and regular moviegoers.
There’s an overwhelming feeling of the now as you watch “Sticks and Stones.” It feels immediate, a plea from one of our very best comedians to his own audience to STOP the hysteria. The divide happening currently in America is frightening, as our tribalist nature has split us all up into an insubordinate amount of group-thinking. There is no more room for agreement — concisely drawn and substantial arguments have been neglected for “safe space” measures and social media tweets.
Chris Rock isn’t a fan of cancel culture either.
Amplifying Joe Rogan’s woke mob comments from last week, in which the ultra-popular podcast host spoke of how “cancel culture” has outlawed straight white men from speaking, Rock tackled cancel culture’s impact on comedy during a recent interview on “The Breakfast Club,”[via BroBible]:
I see a lot unfunny comedians, I see unfunny TV shows, I see unfunny award shows, I see unfunny movies ’cause no one’s — everybody’s scared to, like, you know, make a move. You know, that’s not a place to be. We should have the right to fail. Because failure is a part of art. You know what I mean? It’s the ultimate cancel, but now you got a place where people are scared to talk, that’s not — especially in America — you’re scared to talk, but that’s what people want, you gotta make adjustments and, you know, let’s do it.
A little more than a week ago “Atlanta” writer-actor Donald Glover, more or less, professed the same worrisome words as Rock, claiming the reason for so much “boring stuff” on TV and at the movies is due to fear of being “canceled”.
I added —
Creative and experimental are just not the way you would describe today’s American film and TV landscape. More like, on-the-nose, too obvious, quota’ed … Glover’s comments finally put a serious issue in the spotlight: the fear rummaging throughout the industry that if you don’t adhere to the “woke” criteria set forth in casting, and storytelling then you and your film will be shunned/ridiculed. That’s why you are seeing a dip in the quality of American cinema.
I want you to think about my reasoning here for a second. Think of an American director who had his film debut at the earliest in 2003, who has built a solid reputation and has had a legitimately important impact on cinema in the same vein as those born outside the United States: Dardenne, Glazer, Villeneuve, Joon-Ho, McQueen, Farhadi, Lanthimos, Chan-Wook, Refn, Mungiu, Weerasethakul, Wright, Arnold.
You can’t, right?
The U.S. is promoting its own kind of fascism, a purity test that doesn’t let artists honestly breathe in their creative endeavours. So what's the future of American cinema like? It looks bleak to say the least.