{"id":1588187,"date":"2022-08-04T08:02:54","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T12:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1588187"},"modified":"2022-08-04T08:03:11","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T12:03:11","slug":"the-miserable-lefts-endless-quest-to-censor-comedians-is-way-older-than-dave-chappelle-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-miserable-lefts-endless-quest-to-censor-comedians-is-way-older-than-dave-chappelle-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Miserable Left\u2019s Endless Quest To Censor Comedians Is Way Older Than Dave Chappelle"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-miserable-lefts-endless-quest-to-censor-comedians-is-way-older-than-dave-chappelle-2%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1588187&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Yet another series of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/dave-chapelle-show-canceled-1726590\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">protests<\/a> erupted against comedian Dave Chappelle this past month. Transgender-identifying individuals and their supporters <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/sanfrancisco\/news\/dave-chappelle-transgender-santa-rosa-luther-burbank-protest\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">insisted<\/a> that platforming him could give license to other people to ridicule and physically assault trans people. One of the venues hosting Chappelle ultimately capitulated to the protesters and canceled the comedian\u2019s show.<\/p>\n<p>Chappelle, a professional <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/10\/07\/in-the-closer-dave-chappelle-cements-the-legacy-of-his-brilliant-run-at-netflix\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">comedian<\/a>, has become an enemy of woke ideologues for the crime of making jokes. He has been branded as \u201ctransphobic,\u201d and people are taking increasingly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/stage\/2022\/may\/04\/dave-chappelle-attacked-by-man-with-replica-gun-at-la-comedy-festival\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">drastic measures<\/a> to silence him. Attempts to silence comedians for speech deemed offensive by the left, however, have been going on long before Chappelle poked fun at \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/jQ8Z00MfkcI?t=33\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the alphabet people<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>The Curious Case of Sam Hyde\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p>Nearly a decade ago, a grown man wearing a red sweat suit and plastic centurion armor delivered a talk titled \u201c2070 Paradigm Shift\u201d to an auditorium filled with people attending Drexel University\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.phillymag.com\/news\/2013\/10\/06\/tedx-prank-philadelphia-drexel-sam-hyde\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">third<\/a> annual TEDx symposium. This talk, given by comedian Sam Hyde, was an elaborate prank aimed at lampooning the self-congratulatory and pompous nature of TED Talk-style lectures and higher education in general.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Several times throughout his talk, Hyde \u2014 who broke into the mainstream consciousness as the frontman for the digital comedy troupe Million Dollar Extreme (MDE) \u2014 almost breaks character and has to hide his face from the audience to avoid bursting into laughter. During the talk, he notes that he finds inspiration in teaching African refugees how to program Javascript and encourages the audience to be hopeful as the future will grant young children the ability to 3D print \u201cMuslim Barbie dolls\u201d and will usher in a tolerant era of \u201cstate-enforced homosexuality.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The performance was both hilarious and critically acclaimed. Hyde received a positive review from The Washington Post \u2014 which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/compost\/wp\/2013\/10\/14\/the-most-glorious-ted-talk-takedown-you-will-witness-before-2070\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">called<\/a> his performance \u201csubversive brilliance\u201d and \u201cthe most glorious TED talk takedown\u201d \u2014 and Gawker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gawker.com\/comedian-gives-ted-talks-the-pranking-they-desperately-1443673155\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">applauded<\/a> the prank as a \u201csymbolic victory in the war on bullsh*t.\u201d However, such corporate approval was short-lived.<\/p>\n<h2>The Adult Swim Saga<\/h2>\n<p>In 2015, Hyde\u2019s success in alternative comedy led to his crew getting a development deal with the alternative programming behemoth Adult Swim. The subsequent show, \u201cMillion Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace,\u201d had a six-episode run before the network pulled the plug. Despite having high ratings, the show attracted an eccentric fan base of young, right-wing men, and the network that platformed shock-comics and surrealists such as Eric Andre, Tim Heidecker, and Eric Wareheim and has run countless hours of offensive and absurdist content could not allow this to stand.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWorld Peace\u201d was met with the typical list of pejoratives that can make any mainstream right-winger drop to his knees and plead for mercy. Hyde and his associates were branded as alt-right neo-Nazis responsible for communicating on behalf of Donald J. Trump. They were some of the first people to experience the phenomenon that is now referred to as \u201ccancel culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly enough, the harshest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeednews.com\/article\/josephbernstein\/neo-nazi-promo-adult-swim-million-dollar-extreme#.pbwxy9Keb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">criticisms<\/a> of Hyde and his associates, branding them as acolytes of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeednews.com\/article\/josephbernstein\/adult-swim-talent-trying-to-cancel-million-dollar-extreme\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">alt-right<\/a>, were written by a man mercilessly <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/xtaazW6NXXc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">trolled<\/a> by the comedian.<\/p>\n<p>Did \u201cWorld Peace\u201d \u2014 and by extension, Hyde and his cohorts \u2014 make <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/4CC5N1_bZsQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">offensive jokes<\/a>? Of course they did. They are comedians, and that\u2019s what comedians do. Their style of comedy relied on satirizing the absurdity of established trends by subverting and outright refusing to adhere to the expectations and standards of polite society.<\/p>\n<p>And to be fair, with a group named \u201cMillion Dollar Extreme,\u201d one really shouldn\u2019t expect anything other than tomfoolery taken to its logical conclusion.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>The Comedy Stylings of MDE\u00a0\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p>In an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/news\/general-news\/sam-hyde-speaks-meet-man-behind-adult-swims-canceled-alt-right-comedy-show-954487\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">interview<\/a> with The Hollywood Reporter shortly after his show\u2019s cancellation, Hyde acknowledged that \u201cWorld Peace\u201d was \u201cstrictly meant to be a comedy show\u201d and wasn\u2019t \u201csupposed to be a political statement that says one thing or another.\u201d The show had no message. Its only goal was to make people laugh.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the same interview, Hyde, who at this point had been branded as a crypto-nazi white supremacist, acknowledged that his show \u201cmade fun of white people more than any other group on the show\u201d and that a lot of the crew who helped them develop the show, including its assistant director, were black people.<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, Hyde took to the streets of New Haven, Connecticut, to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=S4R5didBbB8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lampoon<\/a> the town\u2019s overwhelmingly white and wealthy college students for their self-aggrandizing rhetoric about race. At the time, Yalies \u2014 ostensibly some of the most elite people in the nation \u2014 were riled up about the injustice of the then-Washington Redskins having an allegedly racially insensitive name. So, the MDE team showed up to infiltrate student protests. As luck would have it, Hyde and associates did not encounter a single protester. So instead, they walked the streets of New Haven role-playing as left-wing culture warriors to show liberal elites just how grating and annoying their worldview can be.<\/p>\n<p>Further evidence of MDE\u2019s prioritization of disregard for establishment is Hyde\u2019s performance as the eponymous character in the sketch \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/5g-nniO1WN4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Officer Maggot<\/a>,\u201d in which he portrays the caricature of an incompetent and bigoted police officer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While harassing a man of undetermined Middle Eastern ethnicity, Officer Maggot tells him that he will get a \u201cpaid vacation\u201d because he \u201chas the state behind [him]\u201d if he abuses his power to kill him. He goes on to say, \u201cI\u2019m power tripping, I\u2019m doing my thing; this is what I was born to do.\u201d Clearly, Hyde is \u2014 in comedy parlance \u2014 \u201cpunching up\u201d by caricaturing a police officer who overtly stereotypes and mistreats the people he pulls over. The sketch satirizes how a police officer with an inferiority complex might interact with the general public.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The members of MDE, around the same time their show was airing, even released a satirical book titled \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/How-BOMB-U-S-Govt-Hyde\/dp\/0997917601\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How To Bomb The U.S. Gov\u2019t<\/a>.\u201d The book is little more than a coffee table book-sized \u201czine\u201d that exudes schizophrenic energy, but that\u2019s probably the point. The book is meant to make you scratch your head, nervously laugh, and thumb through a couple of pages before setting it back down in a state of utter confusion. The joke is that you wasted your time and money reading it. It has no larger message.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>The Politics of It All<\/h2>\n<p>Several people allege that \u201cWorld Peace\u201d was canceled \u2014 and that Hyde\u2019s standing with Adult Swim was torpedoed \u2014 due to antisemitism, sexism, etc. It\u2019s worth noting that these things, in and of themselves, probably don\u2019t actually bother the folks at Adult Swim and that none of the content produced by Hyde or MDE was any more offensive than that of their peers.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, Eric Andre is still in good standing with the network after using the word \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=J1fL7J_iubg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">k-ke<\/a>\u201d in the fourth season of his eponymous talk show, \u201cThe Eric Andre Show.\u201d And \u201cFamily Guy,\u201d a longtime fixture of Adult Swim prior to its acquisition by Disney, is replete with jokes that, to this day, are considered <a href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/jewish\/2014-03-21\/ty-article\/is-family-guy-anti-semitic\/0000017f-e8aa-dc91-a17f-fcaffe3d0000\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">antisemitic<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esquire.com\/entertainment\/tv\/a25902540\/family-guy-gay-jokes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">homophobic<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.out.com\/television\/2019\/10\/07\/family-guy-still-just-transphobic-ever\">tra<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.out.com\/television\/2019\/10\/07\/family-guy-still-just-transphobic-ever\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">nsphobic<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/7bdynx\/family-guy-itv2-bbc3-kick-the-habit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The fifth episode of \u201cWorld Peace,\u201d titled \u201cNot Everyone Thinks You\u2019re a Hero,\u201d opens with a sketch set at a fancy wine party attended by wealthy urbanites. In the skit, Hyde and his co-star Nick portray a set of brothers, and it quickly becomes clear that Nick is resentful of the \u201cdog of a woman\u201d that his brother married due to her unappealing appearance and her socio-economic status.<\/p>\n<p>The sketch climaxes as Nick very obviously trips his brother\u2019s wife, sending her into a glass table which subsequently shatters. Having been eviscerated by the broken glass, the woman lies on the floor, bleeding profusely, while Nick\u2019s character gaslights his brother into believing that his wife\u2019s fall happened naturally.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Is the skit satirizing domestic abuse? Yes, but is that really any worse than Eric Andre intentionally making his show\u2019s female counterparts intensely uncomfortable by being performatively grotesque on camera? Both approaches were incredibly over the top in the pursuit of making their audiences laugh, and both were, generally speaking, effective.<\/p>\n<p>The reality of the situation is that it doesn\u2019t matter nearly as much that the content produced for Adult Swim is offensive as it does that the people who produce the content have the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/timheidecker\/status\/1009257078643351552?s=20&#038;t=nLjGriWQj0JZIzd2sJXOhg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">right politics<\/a>, as many influential <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeednews.com\/article\/reggieugwu\/tim-heidecker-trump-songs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">people<\/a> in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/brett-gelman-adult-swim_n_582c8e2de4b058ce7aa86d55\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">upper echelons<\/a> of Adult Swim seemingly do.<\/p>\n<p>Take, for instance, Dan Harmon, the creator of \u201cRick and Morty.\u201d Harmon is renowned for his offensive stylings and has found himself <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiewire.com\/2020\/08\/rick-morty-dan-harmon-cancel-qanon-save-the-children-1234579993\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bugged<\/a> by controversy in recent years. Is there really any question that his offensiveness and controversy don\u2019t matter nearly as much because of his emphatic opposition to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denofgeek.com\/tv\/dan-harmon-goes-on-anti-nazi-rant-wants-you-to-fight-fascism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Donald Trump<\/a> and the alleged insurgence of American fascism?\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>What Now?<\/h2>\n<p>Since his show\u2019s cancellation and his subsequent mainstream de-platforming, Hyde has been busy producing content on <a href=\"https:\/\/samhyde.gumroad.com\/l\/HydeWars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gumroad<\/a>, an independent crowdfunding platform similar to Patreon. He became friends with and trained Jewish-Canadian YouTuber <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/rGzKfy7lhiA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Harley Morenstein<\/a> for a philanthropy boxing match, has collaborated with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HMoaEPP6-_A\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">independent black artists<\/a>, and is venturing into the world of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HappyPunchPromo\/status\/1542238800373583872?s=20&#038;t=dHuwEvaQVlKOfdgdkTlfBA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">amateur athletics<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Surely, there are valid criticisms that can be made of Hyde, whoever he may have supported, and whatever he may have said in the past. There are things he has done that would probably make most people deeply uncomfortable, but at the end of the day, the conduct that branded Hyde as an unperson was virtually indistinguishable from that of his counterparts.<\/p>\n<p>Much to the dismay of people who spend their free time protesting standup comedians, Dave Chappelle is not going anywhere. He is an incredibly successful performer both commercially and critically and has cemented his status as an American icon. Still, there remains a rabid base of culture warriors who are desperate to silence him despite the fact that at one point they probably laughed at his jokes.<\/p>\n<p>However, unlike Chappell, Hyde is still largely persona non grata in polite circles. Has he done things that the average person would never think of doing? Of course he has; that\u2019s what he does for a living. Nevertheless, he continues to captivate the interests of several ever-growing online communities who feel drawn to him for any number of reasons, not least of which is the fact that he was canceled for committing the same sins as those around him.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Samuel Mangold-Lenett is a staff editor at The Federalist. His writing has been featured in the Daily Wire, Townhall, The American Spectator, and other outlets. He is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. Follow him on Twitter @Mangold_Lenett.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yet another series of protests erupted against comedian Dave Chappelle this past month. Transgender-identifying individuals and their supporters insisted that platforming him could give license to other people to ridicule<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1185,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1588187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1185"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1588187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1588187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1588187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1588187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}