A while back I was hired to do a roast for a West Los Angeles law firm. I was tasked with poking fun at their summer associates. Some ribbing to make them feel part of a team - since I’d be razzing everyone. At my request, the partner sent me brief descriptions of each summer hire. I got to work writing my roast material.
Everyone was in good spirits when I was ushered into a conference room with a cocktail hour vibe - plastic cups of wine, beer on ice and assorted cheese platters. I was introduced to the young, well dressed crowd. As a way of ingratiating myself and putting them at ease I recounted my days at Skaaden Arps working as a paralegal out of college - during the M&A heyday.
Then I started doing what I was there to do - make these twenty somethings laugh at each other and themselves. It had been reported to me that since relocating to California one of the women was getting up at 5 am to go surfing before work, had taken in a rescue dog, and was spending her Saturdays playing golf. To which I added, “And dating Ellen has also made her feel at home in SoCal.”
Everyone had their moment, we all laughed, my parking was validated and I headed back east to Atwater.
The next morning I got a call from the person who hired me.
“Yeah, so I got in trouble for that Ellen bit.”
“What? Obviously that was a joke,” I said, my heart racing. I was definitely a novice roaster.
“Sure. But the young woman is gay and she hadn’t come out yet and well…she brought it up to HR.”
“HELLO! I WAS JOKING. I WAS HIRED TO MAKE PEOPLE LAUGH.” I wanted to yell, but didn't.
“Bummer,” I said. “Obviously I didn’t mean to upset anyone.”
“Of course not,” he said. “We just won’t be having a comedian back here any time soon!” And he laughed. Ha ha.
Ha?
There’s a reason I’m talking about this again twenty years later. In case entertainment is not your focus, Jimmy Kimmel was recently pulled off the air for a comment he made about the late Charlie Kirk. Lots of outraged people will continue to throw stones at each other about this whole debacle. What I need to express in no uncertain terms is that we comedians have to stay truth tellers and should not be censored.
You don’t have to be an historian to understand that freedom of speech is one of the bedrocks of America. Admittedly, by Kimmel, the timing of this particular barb and the effect it had was not his intention. I was very moved by his heartfelt statement in his first show back, it “...was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man.” I one hundred percent believe him, and there are posts on X to support this.
When asked, I describe stand up comedy as the “double black diamond” difficulty of being a performer. Largely because the only way to be good at it is to fail publicly. Ultimately, it’s an audience that reveals what works and what doesn’t. Which is what makes it so risky. Used to be for most of us, failing publicly meant an audience of 10, or 100 - maybe a few thousand if you’re a headliner. No more. Now anyone can be recording you at any time, which makes it even harder to test material, to take risks. Harder to figure out where the lines are that shouldn’t be crossed.
This is not a reason to stop trying. But it is a reason to appreciate the courage that it took Kimmel to reflect and get back in the game. To screw his courage to the sticking post and beyond and put his whole self back out there - with a sense of humor, heart and yes his edge. I’ve never met him but, this week he has become a case study for me in resilience and using the very comedy tools that got him into our living rooms to keep himself there.
If “many a truth is said in jest,” and I believe it is, we need to make sure our “jesters” can keep making mistakes as they reflect our world back to us. I’m not sure that’s Disney’s philosophy, but it's what their decision to bring him back reflects and it was the right thing to do.
And I hope that summer intern is living her best life!
