Jon Blair on Daniel Tosh: “Don’t be all ‘first they came for the comics’”
My brother started blogging again this week, after more than a year away from his website, and he’s already off to a great start. Check out his post on Daniel Tosh and the unfortunate rape joke debacle; it’s a terrific take on the free speech issue from a comedian’s perspective, and it’s been making the rounds on the web tonight.
Jon is quick to note that his post “isn’t particularly a response to what Daniel Tosh did,” acknowledging that many, many, many, many people have already given the issue some thorough, insightful coverage. What Jon does instead is identify the Tosh debate as the latest example of an argument he’s grown tired of hearing after years in comedy. He calls it the credo of “They’re just jokes, and there’s free speech, which means you aren’t allowed to be mad at me.”
If you follow my brother on Twitter, then you may have already spotted his take on that credo. He’s also capped off his post with a “TL, DR Version” that quickly and neatly gets to the heart of the matter. But the post as a whole is educational, not to mention lighter and funnier than a lot of the other articles that have already been written on the subject.
“I have usually found that the most aggressive champions of Free Speech in comedy,” Jon writes, “are willing to defend it to their very last as it applies to them as comedians, but lack much understanding of it as it applies to their audience’s right to be offended, to disagree. Which is a drag because the math of it really couldn’t be any easier: Take all of your dearly held ideals and replace ‘ME’ with ‘YOU.’”
As long as you’re visiting Jon’s site, take a look at the art and design portfolio he put together this week. You can also check out the latest video from the Sketchersons, which hit the web today.
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