Tim Allen has been around the comedy block for more than 4 decades now, he knows his stuff and if he spots changes and/or differences that have happened throughout the years, well, you should probably believe what he says.
The 65 year-old comedian has, more or less, confirmed my beliefs that we are living in some kind of doomsday for comedy. Comedians have been too scared to "go there" and run the risk of offending with a simple joke.
Allen was part of a panel discussion when he made these comments [Via EW]:
"It’s a very icy time. I’ve been a comedian for 38 years and I’ve never seen it, like Lenny Bruce said at the Purple Onion, ‘We’ve gone backwards.’ There are things you can’t say. There are things you shouldn’t say. Who makes up these rules? And as a stand-up comic, it’s a dangerous position to be in because I like pushing buttons. It’s unfortunate.”
Which artist doesn't like pushing buttons? Isn't the whole point of art to "push buttons," break people out of their comfort zones, make them see the world in a new light etc. Regardless of the situation that we find ourselves in, I do think a major backlash will eventually happen against the P.C. movement, which is primarily being enforced on social media, ESPECIALLY Twitter, where a group of disenfranchised youth and adult-identifying "children" moan and groan about anything they deem too offensive for their timid minds.
if you look at the most successful comedies of the '80s, 90's and 00's you will notice how irreverent, risky and outrageous many of them were. 90% of them wouldn't be made today just by the sheer fear of offending, No, really, just look at my list of the best comedies of the 2000s, would any of these films pass the purity test?
Superbad, Step Brothers, The Hangover, Wedding Crashers, Dodgeball, Anchorman, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Old School, Tropic Thunder, Pineapple Express, Borat, Team America: World Police, Role Models, Bad Santa, Little Miss Sunshine, Mean Girls, School of Rock, Meet the Parents, Zoolander
In these crazy times, it's just amazing thinking how Robert Downey Jr did blackface in "Tropic Thunder" and got away with it unharmed. His career still intact. If "Tropic" were released today, could he get away with that? Makes you think ... pic.twitter.com/qF6L8MqzaS— Jordan Ruimy (@mrRuimy) July 5, 2018
I espoused the death of comedy at the movies earlier this week, in the aptly titled feature "The 2010s: The Worst Decade For Comedies."