Jim Gaffigan on the PC Debate: We’re All Animals | Big Think

Standup comedy has a rich history of being associated with being against censorship. It’s, you know, comedians are contrarians. You tell a comedian to not do something, similar to a five-year-old that’s sleep-deprived, that will be the first thing they do. If you say do not go on stage, do not talk about the CEO at this corporate event, comedians will instinctively do that.

So any form of censorship is counterintuitive to a comedian. So comedians pride themselves on saying any topic – nothing is off-limits, dah, dah, dah. That being said, I also think that as a comedian, I believe that there’s nothing that’s off-limits. But I also think that as human beings we’re constantly censoring ourselves. I’m censoring myself right now for this. I’m trying to appear smart, and I’m not doing that good of a job.

But I do think that the PC culture, in my opinion, is of great value. We should always strive to be more sensitive and understanding, and similar to the concept of liberty, which I mentioned before, is ever-expanding. So our idea of freedom today is a much better fulfilling idea of freedom than our founding fathers even envisioned probably. But it’s the same notion of freedom.

So the idea of political correctness, I don’t think that has to do with censorship. I think that has to do with a certain sensitivity. So, you know, words that are very toxic, it’s unnecessary. If you also identify yourself as a clean person, it’s not necessary to say shocking words. That being said, there are great comedians that deal in shock, that deal in irreverence.

But similar to liberty, irreverence – what’s irreverent today is stale tomorrow. So if you chase irreverence, that’s a pretty slippery slope. I mean, Don Rickles can do it, but there’s been a lot of awkward moments for Don Rickles even on a public stage. But I don’t know. It’s also very personal, but I think that whatever we call political correctness or whatever the term might be, saying things that aren’t sexist or could be construed as racist, it’s not that hard of a sacrifice.

Now that’s not to say that people aren’t overly sensitive. I think the bigger issue, which I even – we did an episode on – is the fact that we are humans, and there is the mob mentality. That same mob mentality that would go on PokeRoms in Eastern Europe is the same mentality that people engage in when someone does a tweet that’s of poor taste. So I think it’s not so much the crime, it’s the punishment.

And I think that human beings, I feel like we have this arrogance. Like every generation thinks we got it figured out. We’re the greatest generation. We got rid of fascism. When the reality is that every generation thinks we’ve figured it out. Medical science. We’ve got it. We’re scientists. What we do is we leech bodies, and that’s how you cure diseases. There’s an arrogance there that we don’t – even today we’re like we’ve got to figure it out, you know.

Like even with the transgender thing. I think that there’s almost this sensibility like we finally figured it out. Everyone’s equal once we get these trans people. But there is a bigotry that exists in our culture that we’re not aware of, that our children will point out, and we will be as resistant as our parents are to certain things. Like that’s not homophobic.

But, you know, my parents were very liberal for their age but I remember when I moved to New York in the early 90s, I just thought it was so funny when some of my friends from New York would say people in the South, they’re prejudiced, all of them. And I just thought that was great irony. Really? All of them? Isn’t that ironic?

So it’s something where I just think that there’s this certain amount of humility that we should carry. I’m not saying I execute that humility. I’m just saying as an observer, whether someone – it’s like everyone makes mistakes. I mean I haven’t since ’81 – ’81 I made one mistake. Then no mistakes. But I just think we should be more forgiving.

And I think it’s more interesting the Teflon people. And I mean that as a compliment. People that – there are some people that can make mistakes and it doesn’t bother them on a social – in a public atmosphere. And some people make one mistake and they’re guilty forever and they’re indicted in it. And I think that goes back to our mob mentality.

So in the end, we’re animals. We’re like these strange tribal people that like everyone who gets around on Sunday night and watches Game of Thrones and watches this strange culture of this made-up world. Like we don’t have the awareness that we’re just as crazy as that world of Game of Thrones. We just don’t want to look at ourselves.

Anyway, I’m a great guy. That’s what I’m saying.