Thereโs a new documentary being screened on college campuses this month called โCan We Take A Joke?โ Itโs a look at how political correctness is killing comedy and free speech, especially at universities, where many comedians refuse to play, citing hypersensitive audiences.
Right on cue came this headline Monday: โCollegeโs โZoolander 2โ screening canceled because movie mocks โmarginalized identities.โโ How serendipitous for documentary makers, as perpetually offended college students essentially proved their point as they rolled out the movie to the masses.
The heart of comedy is to laugh at and poke fun of all our foibles, so โ yes โ itโs going to suffocate in a safe zone that disallows offense, ร la college campuses.
In the case of โZoolander 2,โ the student-run programming board at Claremont McKenna College told The College Fix that after screening the movie, they โobserved that the film did not portray the LGBTQ community in a positive light and made a series of inappropriate jokes at the expense of individuals of marginalized identities.โ
One Claremont McKenna student who disagreed with the decision to yank the flick said itโs a slippery slope.
โThe entire movie is written on stereotypes taken to the extreme, thatโs why itโs funny,โ student John Marshall told The Fix. โFollowing a line of reasoning of boycotting movies that โdo not represent communities wellโ will have us boycotting movies that depict jocks as meat heads, blondes as dumb, and guys as messy.โ
Writing in Reason, Robby Soave also pointed out that โthe idea that โmarginalized identitiesโโthe trans community, in this caseโcanโt handle one stupid joke is more than a little insulting to them. No one should strive to be so fragile.โ






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