Comedians can get away with most things, but sometimes mean jokes are just bullying.
I love the provocative ladies — the late Phyllis Diller, Joan Rivers and Kathy Griffin. They go too far, but there’s something cathartic about it. When questioned over whether it was appropriate to make 9/11 jokes so soon after the tragedy, Rivers was adamant that laughter was a part of the healing process.
But there’s a fine line between pushing the envelope and being a douchebag. Like when Sacha Baron Cohen was on The Howard Stern Show and joked about Ryan Seacrest, saying, “He apparently has an asshole like a collapsed mineshaft.”
There’s just something about a “he’s a faggot” joke that I find to be in bad taste. Because when you make him being gay a joke, it makes being gay a joke. It’s offensive, and not in a jocular or particularly clever way. But unfortunately, Cohen often confuses being moronic with comedy.