Los Angeles | In-Person

Has Political Correctness Really Killed Humor?

A Zócalo/UCLA Event
Moderated by Carina Chocano, Contributing Writer, The New York Times Magazine

Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld say they won’t perform on college campuses because politically correct students are too easily offended. Monty Python’s John Cleese writes that oversensitivity is killing comedy and threatening free expression, and that “all comedy is critical” and involves judging other people. But how does that reconcile with the notion that political correctness is at heart a call for greater decency? Have we really gone too far? And what is the right balance between freedom of speech, be it humorous or not, and the need to acknowledge social diversity? Performance artist/comedian and UCLA alum Kristina Wong, Skidmore College comedy scholar and author of All Joking Aside: American Humor and Its Discontents Beck Krefting, and UCLA grad and stand-up comedian Max Amini visit Zócalo to ask what—if anything—is funny anymore.

 
*Photo by Susan Ragan/Associated Press.

LOCATION:
Museum of Contemporary Art
250 S Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Parking is $9 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall garage. Enter from Second St., just west of Grand Ave.

The Takeaway

You Can Be Funny Without Being Racist, Sexist, or a Bully

And Being “PC” Might Even Make Comedians More Creative

When New York Times Magazine contributing writer Carina Chocano was initially approached to moderate a Zócalo/UCLA event on political correctness and humor, she was intimidated by what she thought was …