© Reuters / Mario Anzuoni'Why so serious?' indeed...
What Phillips called "woke culture" - a pathological eagerness to avoid insensitivity that weaponizes the worst excesses of political correctness - has made comedy all but impossible because it has made the cost of failure too high. A single failed joke can cost a comedian their livelihood if it offends the wrong people - and who can create when their hands are tied?
"It's hard to argue with 30 million people on Twitter," Phillips pointed out, "so you just go, 'I'm out.'" He added that he is far from the only "f***ing funny guy" who has done the risk-benefit analysis and found comedy to be not worth the penalty for offending modern audiences, and said he finds it "astounding" how much "the far-left can sound like the far-right when it suits their agenda."
Digging through a comedian's old work to find something offensive, holding it up as a beacon to muster popular outrage against that person, and getting them "cancelled" has become a competitive sport for a small but vocal segment of the Left. This group, which has made a lifestyle out of taking offense, has also declared open season on social media, sifting through decade-old tweets and posts in the hope of unearthing something inflammatory. When they find it, the offending tweets are generally taken out of context and often read as serious when they were originally meant as sarcastic or ironic - as jokes. But most outrage mob victims are so traumatized by the experience of being piled on by the whole of Woke Twitter that they simply beg their tormentors for forgiveness until the bullies get bored and move on.
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