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While a comedian’s job is ostensibly to make audiences laugh, the political environment of the past several years has resulted in trend of self-censorship as public figures faced the prospect of being “canceled” for voicing certain opinions.
Now that President Donald Trump is back in the White House, however, one of the most popular funnymen in the business is among those who say we are in a new era of free speech.
As the Daily Caller reported:
The veteran stand-up star, best known for wisecracking onstage via a cast of ventriloquist dummies, told Fox News Digital that he believes Trump’s election was a huge blow to cancel culture, which he says was keeping comedians from making the jokes they used to make.
“But now with Trump back in office, just to me as a comedian, you just kind of felt this weight off your back… you feel like you can now joke about the things that we used to joke about,” Dunham said.
Dunham, who holds the Guinness World Record for most tickets sold for a stand-up comedy tour during his “Spark of Insanity” tour (2007-2010), admitted to Fox News Digital that he felt that he hasn’t been able to joke about or express opinions on certain topics in the last few years due to the rise of cancel culture.
He said talking about politics or promoting “common sense” ideas in the public arena has been “painful” with this dynamic going on, as sensitive groups looked to punish or shame prominent figures for saying anything they deemed to be politically incorrect.
Dunham went so far as to say that comedy – which he described as “one of the last forms of free speech”- was really stifled in recent years, until Trump’s victory.
“And the fact that in the past few years that was tromped on, and almost really squelched – really was squelched – it’s just so refreshing right now to at least feel like it’s okay to do real stand-up comedy now.”
Plenty of other comedians have voiced their concern about the direction of the industry in recent years:
Jerry Seinfeld: PC culture and fear of offending people is killing funny shows.
“When you write a script and it goes into four or five different hands, committee, groups—’here’s our thought about this joke’—well that’s the end of your comedy.” pic.twitter.com/YZuWo5HlJu
— Katherine Brodsky (@mysteriouskat) April 28, 2024
“Comedy was totally protected free speech when it was used to subvert the majority Christian White culture. Now comedy is a mouthpiece for ‘The Machine.’” – Canceled Comedian @leonardaisfunE on the Fight Back Podcast with @jakeshieldsajj & @badazn. pic.twitter.com/VXR3brXYzp
— Sam Parker
(@BasedSamParker) February 7, 2025
(@BasedSamParker) ‘Roastmaster’ Jeff Ross shreds cancel culture: People ‘don’t want their comedy watered down’ https://t.co/j7MxDkIov1
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 31, 2025
Comedian Jim Florentine, who was reportedly disinvited from a comedy club due to his political ideology, predicted a shift toward Trump — and free speech — prior to last year’s election.
Per Fox News:
When asked about how dominant cancel culture still is in the U.S., Florentine said that it has become markedly less influential.
“It did work for a while,” he said. “People were getting shut down for having a difference of opinion. But I think all of America at this point, even the liberals, think ‘this is ridiculous. This is too much. We gotta stop this. Just let people work.’”
Florentine said that he was surprised by how normalized talking about former President Trump has become in comedy, especially compared to a few years ago.
“People are allowed to say that they are voting for Donald Trump or that they like Donald Trump,” he said. “If you said that four years ago, people wouldn’t even talk to you. They would block you. Family members would never talk to you.”
“But now it’s out in the open,” the comic added.
When asked about the effect that the declining power of cancel culture would have on the 2024 election, Florentine said that it would shape political discussion.
“You really had to lie and you couldn’t tell people who you were voting for,” he said. “You’re not going to be called a racist if you don’t like the current administration. I really feel like people are having those conversations, whereas before you had to keep your mouth shut on who you were going to vote for.”
Here’s what comic and podcast host Joe Rogan had to say on the topic back in 2023:
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport.