Comedy is Insulting

Months ago, some Filipinos rallied against Malou Fernandez (for insulting OFWs). Last week, it was Teri Hatcher (for insulting Filipino nurses and doctors). Now in the same mailing list where I'm getting all these news, the new target is The Daily Show for labeling former president Cory Aquino as slut (well they were also insulting included Golda Meir and Margaret Thatcher so...). You know what the common thread here is? They were all trying to be funny.

There was a point in time when I wanted to be a comedian but then I realized I didn't have a stomach for it because I'll be insulting a lot of people. And the fact of the matter is, comedy is really insulting. What's impressive about Josh Blue, who won last year's Last Comic Standing, is that most of his insults were directed at himself (he suffers from cerebral palsy and uses that as his material).

Jokes are usually funny when they're not directed at you. I mean how many of us Filipinos made jokes about 9/11? I'm sure Americans would have probably been insulted by it. But you know what, to me, it seems the local climate is turning into one that's too politically correct.