Leave it up to Katt Williams to put an end to the never-ending cycle of the “cancel culture” debate in a hilariously yet sympathetic way.
During an interview on the Joe Budden podcast, the comedian was asked, “where do you stand on comics’ ability to be comics without judgment and repercussion, in cancel culture?”
Williams responded with an analogy: “If you ask all the people that didn’t make it to the NBA, if you asked them, if we just lowered the goal down another foot, they would all tell you they’d make it. Nobody likes the out of bounds, but the out of bounds gotta be there, or you’ll run-up in the stands.”
Williams demonstrates two points at once: that certain comics blame cancel culture for their lack of success or even just chuckles, and that rules exist for logical reasons, even if you disagree with them. He continued, “My point is, people weren’t all that extremely funny when they could say whatever they wanted to say. At the end of the day, there’s no cancel culture. Cancellation doesn’t have its own culture.”
The comedian then reminds Budden of the inherent power imbalance at the heart of the cancel-culture debates, claiming that what has been dubbed “cancel culture” by some well-known comedians is actually “people without a voice being trashed by people just because they had a bigger name than them, and more money than them, and a better office than them.” He said, “I don’t know what people we think got ‘canceled’ that we wish we had back.”
He also pointed out that the people who complain about canceled culture aren’t actually being censored.“If you wanna offend somebody, no one took those words away from you. ‘Dirty bitch’ ain’t been taken away. You can say that … But don’t use the R-word when you really mean people on the spectrum. Don’t say this word instead of saying autistic. Don’t say this word instead of saying, little people. Look. If these are the confines that are keeping you from doing the craft God put you to, then it probably ain’t for you.”
If one of our greatest living comedians tells you that “cancel culture” is more of a “maybe you’re not that funny” culture, pay attention.
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