Political Correctness Run Amuck?

Shane Gillis was announced as 1 of 3 new hires for the new season of Saturday Night Live.

Subsequently, it was revealed that Gillis had said some rather nasty things about Asians in a podcast about a year ago.

After that, SNL announced that the services of Shane Gillis would no longer be required for the new season.

On one hand, SNL received kudos for taking decisive action in the wake of the revelations about Gillis and his hateful rhetoric.

On the other hand, SNL was derided for giving in to political correctness run amuck.  

Anytime a comedian is outed and penalized for saying or doing something that is offensive, there are those you will immediately come to the defense of that person with the complaint that this person is a victim of political correctness run amuck. 

Is that the case with Shane Gillis? Is Mr. Gillis indeed a victim of political correctness run amuck?

For whenever the question comes up, I have a question of my own: Whatever the comedian said or did, was it funny?

Being genuinely funny forgives a lot in my book. From what I understand, the comments of Mr. Gillis were hostile and derogatory to the Asian community. It wasn’t funny. If he was trying to be funny, it didn’t work. It wouldn’t be funny to an Asian person. I’m not Asian and it wasn’t funny to me either. 

The thing is what some people call “political correctness” is just being kind and decent to people, not holding them in contempt for their race, skin color, sex, gender, religion and so on.

Humor, when done well, requires intelligence and insight and compassion. It is possible to engage in humor at the expense of another person if the other person gets the joke and you understand that other person. Just saying “People who are <fill in the blank> are <stupid, ugly, lazy, the list goes on>” is not funny.

I do think that some times people are too sensitive, looking to be offended.  “Oh no! Mark Twain used the N-word in Tom Sawyer! Twain was a racist and his works must be banned from the public library.” Now that to me would be political correctness run amuck. 

But a lot of times where someone accuses another of political correctness run amuck, it’s just where we need to hold each other accountable to act with intelligence and insight and compassion.

Not treating each other with respect is just not funny.