Ask A Genius 1023: OCD and Taboo Comedy (Areas and Topics)
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/07/26
Rick Rosner, American Comedy Writer, www.rickrosner.org
Scott Douglas Jacobsen, Independent Journalist, www.in-sightpublishing.com
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What are the current taboos for comedians? What can’t you make jokes about now? It’s always something. What’s it now?
Rick Rosner: Well, just recently, a huge taboo popped up after the assassination attempt on Trump. You cannot say you wish the guy’s aim were better. And I disavow that, I disavow any political violence, and I do not wish the guy’s aim was better. I just made that previous statement as an example of a statement you cannot make. You will get your ass cancelled. You will get your ass fired. Some lady working at Home Depot tweeted, “Wish he hadn’t missed.” And the Libs of TikTok—are you familiar with the Libs of TikTok?
Jacobsen: A little bit.
Rosner: Alright. Well, they are a conservative—well, it’s a conservative lady with some people supporting her who goes after what she considers to be the worst examples of liberal excess. But she also supports everything conservative, and she’s loathsome in my mind. She doxxed that lady who works at Home Depot and got her fired and was working on somebody else. I think a chef someplace who said something similar, and I think the chef—anyway, if you go on social media and say anything like that and you are not your boss, somebody will try to get you fired. So that’s a deep taboo. Outside of that, that situation pops up most easily.
Jacobsen: I had in mind that you cannot joke about assassinating Trump. At the same time, what happened to free speech folks? The absolutists.
Rosner: Well, speech is free, but people are also free to doxx you and try to get you fired. I’ve been able to joke about it because I’m my boss. No, I don’t work for anybody. But, immediately after that rally ended after, what, 7 minutes? So I could say that was the least lies Trump has ever told at a Trump rally. And so you can still make jokes about the event. It’s not hilarious, but it is an accurate observation. Oh, and also, when I tweeted that, I said I deplore political violence and I don’t support what happened at all. However, you can comment on it and even joke about some aspects if you don’t hit the live wire of wishing Trump further ill.
Maybe I can imagine that you could while deploring political violence, wish that he’d shit his pants. I’m not going to tweet that because it’s juvenile. And how much trouble one might get in for tweeting that. So, quite reasonably, the entire assassination area is sensitive right now. There are things you can’t joke about just because joking about them would make you a huge fucking asshole. Like, you can’t joke about Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s. What kind of a fucking monster and tone-deaf, unfunny piece of shit would you be to joke about that? And it’s unnecessary. You might argue for freedom of expression, but what would the point be? It just makes you a dick to joke about something like that.
He’s a good guy with a horrible disease. I’ve never seen anybody try to joke about that situation. I’m fine with it being a taboo area. I don’t see it—maybe somebody brilliant and dark like Anthony Jeselnik. Have you ever listened to Anthony Jeselnik, one of the darkest comedians?
Jacobsen: I have heard him. I like some of his jokes. I like the delivery. The content is… But if you were to take it as written word, he’s much better at polishing word use. That’s his skill, clever turns of phrase. He’s good because he develops the whole thing, and then the super dark turn happens in the last three words. He’s a bit like Jimmy Carr in that sense.
Rosner: Yes.
Rosner: So those guys could make a joke about Michael J. Fox, but the joke wouldn’t be about Michael J. Fox. The joke would be, like, see how far I can fucking go. It’s not joking about the situation. You’re playing a game to see what’s the worst, the poorest taste turn you can make. Like, I’ve heard Jeselnik make jokes about fucking babies. And what he’s doing is he’s just playing chicken with some area you absolutely can’t go into. The joke is he went into that area, which is not the same thing.
Jacobsen: It’s a different game. You’re not joking about the taboo area. You’re joking about going into a taboo area. It’s a slight distinction.
Rosner: But yes. I don’t have anything beyond that.
Jacobsen: Did you ever stop turning? Was it counterclockwise?
Rosner: No. It’s clockwise.
Jacobsen: Has that more or less gone away since the ’80s?
Rosner: No. I still do it many times a day. However, my current lifestyle requires less perverse clockwise turning. For example, when I worked at Kimmel, we were originally on the 6th floor, so you had to climb five flights of stairs. Going up the stairs required counterclockwise turning so that I would make weird turns. But going down the stairs was clockwise, so I was fine. But now I don’t have to go up five flights of stairs every time I go to my office because I have a home office.
I have other superstitions, like a rowing machine at an LA Fitness. When leaving the leg press area, I have to go on the right side of the leg press or the rowing machine, even if it’s almost up against the wall and I have to sidle by it, which looks weird if anybody’s paying attention. But also, fuck them. So yes, I still have some OCD-ish stuff. I like to leave rooms by the same entrance I came in. Walking out to the parking lot, I like to take the same path back out to my car if I remember it as I took from it. I wouldn’t say I like stepping on a handicapped symbol painted in a parking lot.
So yes, there’s still a shitload of that stuff. It’s not completely disabling like it is with some people. I come by it honestly because my dad had a ton of it. OCD. The end.
Jacobsen: The end.
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