Let's say a comedian is spreading thinly veiled hate speech. What would you suggest be done?

Yes.  Without implementation an idea is nothing.

Yes.  Many jokes were probably told last night at random bars across the world....  today is the same as yesterday.  The world didn't end.  

Controlling speech may make sense on paper...  but logistically it is problematic.  What is and isn't allowed?  Who decides and holds that extreme influence and power?  What happens if that power gets in the wrong hands?  What if Trump gets a 2nd term and deems anti MAGA articles as hate speech?  

Sorry I like freedom.  And yes, freedom means dealing with idiots who abuse it.  But I would rather deal with idiots than lose freedoms.  Once power is given up, getting it back isn't easy.....  just look at abortion in the US and how much freedom women just lost all because on paper it 'made sense' to let the states decide.

People need to slow their roll on giving up freedom.

Edit

If we had hate speech laws back in the 60s, MLK'S I have a Dream would have been considered hate speech.  So no, I don't want politicians deciding freedom of speech.  

While I 100% agree with Freedom of Speech, over the years I have come to think that good comedians are family friendly.

If you are funny, you are funny. If you need to put swear words in, or use "shock tactics"... well... that's usually because you're not very good.

That's the same with a lot of stuff actually: in films you get excessive violence, excessive action scenes, something that gets called "gritty and realistic", excessive romance, jump scares, and so on. They do it because they aren't good at writing a plot, so they put a 10 minute car chase in.

But who is to decide what is a joke and what is thinly veiled hate speech? If you give that freedom to the government, they will decide for you. And you are bound to hate one of their decisions eventually.

Prosecuting that would become the biggest headache that America has ever had. The very implementation of this idea would become politicized, and endlessly argued over by our high price court system. The idea of nuance would have to come into play with regards as to whether a remark was indeed hate speech or not, and and appealled when a bad result happens. Plus, comedians as a whole, are very unconscientous people. That's why they are funny though, with the whole making fun of others and situations.  So they probably have more hate speech than the rest of us because they are assholes, and even then, I still support Comedy and freedom. Prosecuting hate speech would bankrupt America and I won't stand for it. I want us to pay for things that matter like schools, parks, highways, social security, etc rather than a salve for someone's hurt feelings. 

Yeah, sounds like a nightmare. Especially in the current climate where everybody is chronically offended and cries hate speech at the drop of a hat. Being a victim is more important than being honest. Recently saw a graph on how many times the words "race", "racism" and "racist" were used in some major news publications in the last 20 years, or so. No surprise that these words usage had exponential growth. Rampant abuse of these laws is absolutely inevitable.

Not too familiar with our own history are you.  We whined for a ton of stuff long before guns got involved.  

Guess you forgot the night we dressed up as Native Americans and dumped tea into the Boston harbor.

It typically takes years for a comedian to get big enough to even earn a paltry living.  Spitballing inaccurate numbers here, but out of the 10s of thousands of stand-up comedians, what, maybe 200 make the money needed to be able to fend of litigation ... You want to talk about punching down see how easily the government can punch down on a poor citizen trying to defend themselves in court. 

It's the job of comedians to decide where their boundaries should be.