john_cooper•2mo agoMost Upvoted

Still think cancelling that 90s comedian was way too harsh

I get that everyone jumps on the bandwagon when a celeb says something dumb. But last week I was scrolling through old clips of that guy who got cancelled 3 years ago for a joke about a fast food chain. The joke was dumb, sure, but not like hate speech dumb. I remember watching his Netflix special in 2019 and thinking he was just doing his thing. Now his career is totally gone, no comeback. Meanwhile there are influencers getting second chances every month for actual scams. I just don't see how one bad joke makes you worse than someone ripping off fans for thousands of dollars. Does anyone else think the punishment didn't fit the crime on that one?

3 comments

3 Comments

jakel362mo ago

Didn't that fast food chain also cancel a sandwich around the same time?

grace5081mo ago

I actually dealt with something similar at work last year when a coworker got fired over one dumb email while someone else who was actually stealing from the company kept their job for months. @jakel36 mentioned something about a sandwich getting cancelled and I think that's the perfect comparison - we trash the person over a 5 second joke but let actual sketchy behavior slide all the time.

lisaf382mo agoTop Commenter

That fast food chain pulled the chicken flatbread off the menu back in 2018 and it was actually pretty good, way better than the joke that got the comic cancelled. I remember grabbing one on a road trip and it was decent, not life changing but a solid sandwich. If a company can quietly retire a menu item without public outrage, why can't a comedian get the same treatment for a bad punchline? It feels like we treat one badly as a permanent crime and the other as just a business decision.