David Zucker on https://www.commentary.org/articles/david-zucker/wokeness_destroys-comedy/

“The truth is, I still don’t fully understand why there’s a problem with making a joke that gets a laugh from an audience, even if it is mildly offensive. Why cater to the minority who are outraged when most people still seem to have a desire to laugh?

“Is there a way to determine what exact number of America’s population is killing joy for everyone? Is it 1 percent or 10; 3.3 million Americans or 33 million? Since I can’t seem to find one, let’s go with Phillips’ estimation of “30 million people on Twitter,” which computes to roughly 9 percent of America’s population.”

HE interjection: The anti-Chappelle, anti-The Closer twitter mob is probably a smaller core community than Zucker speculates. In 2016 a UCLA Williams Institute survey found that the total trans population was 1.4 million, or roughly 1/3 of 1%. The overall LGBTQ community is believed to be in the vicinity of 4.5% of_the_United_States, give or take.

Zucker: “What I often wonder is, why do studio executives feel as if they have to cater to these 9-Percenters? In all fairness, 9-Percenters are not a new segment of society. Historically, they’ve always lived among us. The difference between now and then, however, is that social media amplifies the voices of even the smallest subgroups while the anonymity of the Internet removes all consequences. This means that today’s 9-Percenters can hide behind screens and social-media handles as they attack any person on the Internet whose jokes offend them.

“The 9-Percenters of 40 years ago had to think twice about what they were sharing publicly, because at the end of the day, they had to sign their names to their reactions. Without this type of accountability, it’s all too easy for today’s 9-Percenters to attack and shame comedy writers into giving up on the genre.

“COMEDY cannot thrive in a state of fear. For me, as for many comedians, the need to get laughs is greater than the risk of getting hurt. This doesn’t mean that funny people have a higher tolerance for pain or that they aren’t affected by what others say about them. On the contrary, people in comedy spend much of their time beating themselves up over the jokes that didn’t land or were taken seriously.

“What most 9-Percenters don’t realize is that comedians often don’t need to be shamed into feeling insecure and worthless. In a profession where feeling exposed and vulnerable is part of the job, insecurity is an occupational hazard—like arthritis for guitar players or adultery for politicians.”