Comedians, canaries and coalmines

Are you shocked at the amount of people that live in Western societies? Here in Norway, especially when we were in Sweden a couple days ago. But all the countries that we've been in that live in free societies yet are completely afraid to say what they think— is it absolutely shocking to you?

I think the most, I think what I've been most shocked about in all of that is what's happened in the UK with the police starting to prosecute people for crimes of offensiveness. That's just... and I think that's probably partly because I'm— and I mean, I see that as broadly reflective of something that's happening in the West in general, but it's particularly shocking and appalling to me as a Western Canadian.

No, because obviously COUNTA, that was part of the British Empire, and when I grew up, there was a pretty tight affinity still in Western Canada with the British Empire. I mean, our maps were the Dominion of Canada; it was still pink, you know? It was still part of the British Empire. We sang “God Save the Queen” constantly at public gatherings. That's gone by the wayside.

And you know, I've always regarded British common law and the British parliamentary tradition as, well, one of it perhaps the highest achievement of Western civilization. I mean, you could argue about that, but it's in the top ten, let's say. And then to see the Brits, who also have this phenomenal sense of humor, this ability to say anything no matter how outrageous about anyone and to include themselves in the joke, right, which is such an elegant way of expressing comedic freedom— to see them going down this road, it's just... it just... it's— it's what is it exactly?

Well, it's deeply saddening, that's for sure. And what's horrifying— and it's not the exactly the right word, I don't know what the word for it is— there’s certainly sorrow that's associated with a disbelief. It's also that at watching that happen, what I still think is like the central core of the idea of individual sovereignty and freedom as expressed across the Western world.

And then there's similar manifestations of that everywhere else. But the police for prosecuting people for, you know, asking people to turn in their neighbors if they say something offensive, and that's happening in the UK. Yeah, listen, what we saw— that, you know, somebody sent me posters, pictures of posters in the Scottish subway, in the Metro, in the tube, you know, saying inviting people to inform on their neighbors for being offensive. It's like, what? What the hell?

I knew this was coming because— because I knew we brought our first hate speech laws in in Canada back in the 1980s. We were after this character named Ernst Zündel, who is a particularly despicable piece of work— hard hat wearing right-wing anti-Semite Holocaust denier, you know? He had it all, that guy. And you know, it was his shenanigans— careless malevolent shenanigans— that enticed Canadians into producing hate speech legislation. I thought, no, that's not good. It's not good; you're making a big mistake.

We're gonna pay for this; it's gonna unfold over a long time. Who defines hate? The crucial issue. It's not like it's a scientific category to judgment, and the answer is those whom you least want to have the power to define it, because they're the ones that will take that power to themselves. And if you think that isn't gonna affect what you get to say, well, you've got another thing coming.

So, I think it's—we're gonna pay for it, and hopefully, hopefully, will wake up and push back before we have to pay too high a price. We're gonna pay for it; so, yeah, and we're gonna deserve to pay for it too.

He's talking to you. What? You know, last night, I was on this British show called Question Time, which is a very famous British show. And there was a woman parliamentarian there from Ireland, who was pretty bright; I liked listening to her. But the host asked me about this character named Count Dankula. I don't know if you know about him— his girlfriend? He's a comedian. Well, he thinks he's a comedian.

And well, but you know, there are lots of comedians who think they're comedians that aren't funny. And I'm not saying he's not funny because other people think that he's a comedian too, but he presents himself as a comedian— Count Dankula. I mean, that's actually a joke— that name. And his girlfriend had a pug, and I liked Count Dankula because he hated that pug.

And I'm not very fond of pugs— I think they're hideous little creatures. And you know, I don't really hate them; if a pug comes along, I'll pet it and everything, but it's just sort of like this little rat-like dog with these bugs. But you know, if you hit a pug on the back of the head, the eyes will pop out, and so— because they've been so genetically mishandled.

And so, I don't know, man. It's just... you do realize we're putting this on YouTube, and you're just— something you're unleashing a whole world, the hate from the pug people! I know, but whatever, whatever! So, you can have your pug, and you can love— my dad had this dog that was so damn hideous and useless that it was just a miracle, and he loved it to death.

And you know, that's fine. That's fine. But— and there's kind of an ironic attitude in the dismissal of pugs, and Dankula didn't like his girlfriend's pug. And so, he thought he played a mean trick and—or a mean/funny trick and teach it to do a Heil Hitler salute, which I actually thought was quite funny. It's like, I don't look— I don't see that as glorifying Hitler.

It's a pug, for God's sake! It wasn't that— it wasn't, uh, what do you call those, Doberman, you know? It was a pug! That's like teaching a rat to do a Heil Hitler salute! I love that this has come down to the breed of dog with you. Well, these things matter in terms of the way they're represented, you know?

And then, you know, he taught it to— it's so horrible— I'm gonna be so killed for this— he taught it to do its little salute when he said, “gas the Jews,” which is not funny. You know, except it's horribly funny. You know, that's the thing. Well, look! And so, yeah, you laugh, that's right, because you're all horrible.

And you know perfectly well that it's horribly funny! And you know, we need to be able to be horribly funny because life is horrible! And we need to be able to find— we need to be able to allow people the freedom to find the ability to transcend that horror with comedy!

A mark of a free society is that comedians can be just exactly what the arse! Which they're— people who push the edge of what's acceptable! If you're a brilliant comedian, you get right to the edge, right? You dance there, and the audience is thinking— oh, Sarah Silverman is a good example of that, you know?

'Cause you can just see her— she's got all politically correct recently, but when she was in her heyday, you could just see Sarah— she's so smart. You'd see her sitting there, and she'd think of something just spectacularly evil and horrible, and she'd think, “Oh.” And then she'd say it, you know? And everyone would just crack up because like the darkest part of their soul had once thought something like that, and she dared to utter it.

And by uttering it, she also simultaneously transcended it, you know? And that's the beauty of comedy, and well... so anyways, they went after Dankula and nailed him legally, and I thought that's— and that's in Great Britain as well. And last night, so they brought this up on Question Time, and you know, the Irish woman said she went off on a talk about how terrible Kristallnacht was and what an awful thing Auschwitz and the Holocaust was.

It's like, well, you're not that morally virtuous to notice that, you know? You know what I mean? It's like, and it didn't have anything to do with the topic at hand. It's like, yeah, you wouldn't say that you noticed that unless you were implying that were people, there are people around you, including this Count Dankula, who didn't notice that, okay?

It had nothing to do with whether he should have been prosecuted for his stupid joke. And they even say, well, you could say it was a stupid joke, which it certainly was. You could say that it was a hateful joke, which I don't agree with, by the way, but you could say that, and I think you could, you can make a credible case for that.

But then to say that because you think that the Holocaust was bad, he should be criminally prosecuted, it's like, no sorry man, you've crossed the line. And there's no excuse for it. And so, that's part of what's worrisome about the state of discourse in the free West; that same thing— comedians won't go to university campuses. It's the same thing— you don't get to be funny.

So if you can't be funny, then you're not free, you know? The gesture in the King's courts— the only person who gets to tell the truth. And if the King is such a tyrant that he kills this gesture, then you know that the evil king is in charge. And so when we can't tolerate our comedians, it's like, well, there you go. They're the canaries in the coal mine, as far as I'm concerned.

You know, I thought I promised my wife that I wouldn't hit any Hornets' nests with sticks for like a day, and now I just hit a big hornets' nest with a stick. So, sorry, Tammy. She's here somewhere— give it up for Jordan's wife, by the way. She's been on this entire tour!