Should comedians have boundaries?

[the-pi-guy]

LegitHyperbole said:

the-pi-guy said:

A big issue I have with a lot of this thread is that it is incredibly subjective. 

Comedy is subjective. 

Boundaries are subjective. 

A lot of people here are coming into this discussion talking about completely different things. A lot of people are coming into this discussion with completely different baggage (I'm upset about ____ being cancelled or something).

A lot of people here might even be interpreting "comedians" differently from each other. 

A lot of people have different ideas on how boundaries should be enforced or not enforced. Then people are being expected to take ownership of someone else's viewpoint on how enforcement happens, on the basis that they agree with boundaries existing.

I feel like people usually have two completely opposite responses to this kind of thing. They either accept it, and go well that's just how things are. Or they go the completely opposite direction and think that no one else should have to deal with that after them. 

I personally think the latter takes the thicker skin. You have to stand up to bullies, and you often have to be on your own - have to reject a lot of people that you knew growing up.

It's not all about having thick skin, there's a difference between having thick skin and brushing dirt off your shoulder. Being able to laugh at yourself and your most embarrassing aspects is freeing and it helps you get over those aspects you feel insecure about and eases tension between people if those aspects are tension causing. It's why people who are disabled, loose a limb or some other tragedy often use humour to cope, it's good for mental health. However trying to control other people isn't just annoying to those people but it's extremely bad for your mental health. I don't trust people who can't laugh at themselves or try to control others ability to laugh or speak freely, them to me are the new bullys and I find their behaviour far more on the bullying side than any comedian trying to bring joy with laughter. If it seems like bullying then the comedian will NOT get a laugh as it'll make people uncomfortable, people generally don't want to laugh at people but with people. Stand up is like democracy, the people will decide. Watch Kill Tony and you'll see how people decide...if you can handle the cringe of the comedian who bomb. It's very cringe inducing. 

Perfect example of what I was talking about in the first half of my post.