I 
make my Advanced Public Speaking students write and give a speech of apology for a public figure, so when we’re talking about comics giving apologies, we’re kind of in my wheelhouse. Maher’s on-air apologies on his show, the week after his N-word incident did a number of interesting things.
I’ll talk first in this post about his discussion of comics and comedy first, as that is my purpose for this blog, and you can decide if you want to read my next post on how Maher responded to the issues.
What comics do
In his interview with Michael Eric Dyson about his book on white privilege, Tears We Cannot Stop, Bill Maher talks more about his own “n-word” problem. Partially to explain it, Maher states that, “the comic mind goes to a weird place sometimes.” Later in the interview, Maher returns to this point,
But, I just don’t want to pretend this is more of a race thing than a comedian thing. Comedians are a special kind of monkey…. We are a trained thing that tries to get a laugh. That’s what we do. That’s all we are always thinking.
Maher then points out that he has transgressed in private and in public many times while trying to get a laugh, “because that’s what comedians are somehow wired to do. It’s like we always go – we wanna make those people laugh. And sometimes we transgress a sensitivity point.” He then discusses Kathy Griffin’s incident, and the similarity of that incident in that “she was going for a laugh, and I understand that; we sometimes do cross the line.”
Here Maher is stating the intentions of a comic, that their sole intention is to get a laugh, and they should be forgiven when they miss that goal. In this, he echoes John Limon’s model of absolute stand-up. Maher somewhat undermines this position when he references his previous apology:
But it doesn’t matter that it wasn’t said in malice – it wasn’t – if it brought back pain to people, and that’s why I apologized freely and I reiterate it tonight. And that’s sincere.
He realizes that the intentions don’t matter as much as the effects the attempt at humor produces.
Moreover, later in the interview, he softens further on this same point:
What bothered me about this was, it cost me a lot of political capital – I’ll use that term, even though I’m a comedian – but I’m a comedian who’s doing something a little different than most, which is – of course I’m trying to entertain and be popular, that’s my political capital, but at the same time – I’m saying things that are sometimes unpopular even with my own liberal group, which most people don’t. So I’m always, you know, aware of like, I’m willing to do that, I’m willing to spend political capital for a cause, or a view that I think needs to be out there. This wasn’t that. This was just a mistake.
Maher thus characterizes himself in a way similar to Kenny Sebastian’s social comedian. Maher realizes that he has political capital, and that it comes from his ability to entertain, but that nevertheless he can spend it on things he cares about. So here Maher admits that he doesn’t just “try to get a laugh,” sometimes he has a point, which means that we should be able to take him to task when his humor makes an unsatisfactory point – even if it’s just “a mistake.” He can’t hide behind his previous statement that, “Comedy is all comics are ever trying to do!” As Ice Cube points out,
I just don’t know sometimes is this a political show, or is this a show about jokes… – I understand the format, your guy says it’s a comedian’s show, but this to me is a political show.
His interpretation may be shared by many people, and Maher has to own that interpretation.
Breaking ground and crossing lines
Maher wants to pass it off as a one-time, bad reaction. He states,
Yes, it was wrong, and I own up to that. But it’s not as if I’ve made a career of this. You know. It’s not like I went out there last Friday and said, “Ooh, I’m going to break some new ground tonight.”
Two quotes from the section above also bear repeating: Maher’s remarks that “sometimes we transgress a sensitivity point,” and his discussion of Kathy Griffin’s incident, and the similarity of that incident in that “she was going for a laugh, and I understand that; we sometimes do cross the line.”
Dyson’s response is important, so I’ll quote it at length:
I think you’re absolutely right in terms of the comedic mind, you know that people would respond to that by saying, “But look, there are trigger points that even in comedy, lines that you should not cross,” … and when it comes to race, you know that. It’s not that I’m introducing a new concept to you, you understand that. But the reality is that there are so many people who are vulnerable out here, who are black people, brown people, red and yellow people who are vulnerable who don’t have the protection of a culture, so that their comedians might make jokes. Think about it…
Ice Cube adds,
I think you just have to not step on some of the political messages that you send with the joke, because some things just ain’t funny. You know what I mean? This is real right here, what we going through.
Dyson then gives an example from Larry David of Curb Your Enthusiasm, where “a black man comes up to him and says, ‘Hey, you my nigga.'” [Note, that’s the second time Dyson used a version of the word.] Larry wants to use the word, but doesn’t. Dyson says,
What he [David] understood was, that’s a line he can’t cross, and because he understands he can’t cross it, even his comedy has to be disciplined by it.
Summary
Comics like Maher know that they’re not just going for laughs, and they know they shouldn’t be above reproach. The idea of breaking new ground and crossing lines is inherent to humor [I’ll work up the theory side of this soon], but there are those, like Dyson, who believe that there are lines one cannot cross – even the court jester (or wise fool) could be beheaded if he were too insolent.
Questions? Comments? Thoughts? Additions?
What do you think? Is humor a free space in which we can play with anything as long as we’re only trying for a laugh, or are some things too important to joke about?
