Funnyman Adam Carolla isn’t happy about the way the gay community is allegedly policing the way society speaks about them and he recently shared his thoughts on the matter in an interview with the Salon, saying that the gay community has turned into a mafia.
In the interview, Carolla talks about a supposed increased sensitivity in culture that makes it harder to be a comic. When he’s specifically asked about the LGBT community in comedy, he explains that he’s not homophobic but he bemoans the idea that he can’t make fun of gay people the way he used to.
“My feeling about the gay community — first off, you can’t live in Hollywood and get along in this business and be in theater companies and improv companies and have issues with gay people. My last movie I did was a boxing movie called The Hammer, and the director [Charles Herman-Wurmfeld] was gay. If you can’t work with gay people, you’re gonna have a difficult time in Hollywood. There’s plenty of gay people and they’re in positions above you. You’re not going to get your movie directed. I don’t have a problem with it — they’ve just turned into a mafia and demanding everyone apologize for every joke and retract every statement,” Carolla said.
Corolla goes on to say that he misses the old days of comedy and explains that he’s grown tired of speaking about LGBT issues.
“It’s turned into something that’s bigger than it is. I’ve lived in this town my whole life and never seen it like this. There’s been comedians telling jokes but no overt gay-bashing crimes. I don’t even know who’s gay and who’s not gay nine times out of 10 — why do you even need to know? Your skin color and gender one can see, if one wanted to discriminate. In terms of sexual proclivities, I don’t know what someone’s into! You could work with someone who’s into kids — how would you know? I don’t know and I don’t care. In the book, what I say about the gay community is that someone sent me “the top 10 reasons gays should marry.” One: They’re American. Two: They pay taxes. Three through five: So they can shut the f— up. I don’t want to be lying on my deathbed and realize gay marriage and legalization of marijuana is all I discussed the last half of my life,” Carolla says.
Although it doesn’t seem like Carolla is speaking from a place of malice, he is, as a heterosexual white man, speaking from a place of privilege in society that allows him the freedom to not see or care about the experiences, lives and concerns of other people. Granted, comedy is about making fun of what goes on in the world, but his words, at times, sound too similar to something we would’ve heard a white comedian say about black face or black jokes becoming taboo back in the ‘60s and ‘70s. It’s easy to laugh at a community that’s below you on the social totem pole, but it takes a clever and genius comedian to make people laugh while pointing out the nuances and social issues of our society. Perhaps Carolla hasn’t mastered that skill yet. – nicholas robinson
