Comedy on Trial: Comedy, Controversy, and Free Speech

Discussion Leader: Professor Jacques Berlinerblau, author of “Can We Laugh at That?: Comedy in a Conflicted Age”

Controversies set off by comedians are increasingly commonplace in the United States and abroad. This year alone in the United States, comedians such as Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Kevin Hart, and Louis C.K have become the subject of national debates about the propriety of their jokes. The phenomenon is not limited to our country and is witnessed in France, India, the UK, Israel, Turkey, China, and more.

In this discussion, we look at the rise of controversial comedy and ask ourselves why “mere” jokes have suddenly become the subject of such heated contention. Our inquiry leads us to related topics such as the primacy of social media, the collapse of Free Speech law and the global dissemination of anti-Semitism.