Comedian Joe Piscopo: Everyone is too sensitive in comedy these days
Comedy is going through a rough patch, according to actor and comedian Joe Piscopo, who said that he thinks a little more before getting on stage these days.
“When you [perform] comedy, on stage, I find myself checking myself,” he told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on “Mornings with Maria” on Friday. “And I’m talking to some of my buddies… if we did today what we did back then our careers we would have never made it anywhere. Nowadays it’s like the more we preach tolerance, the less intolerant we become.”
His comments come on the heels of Roseanne Barr opening up during her first televised appearance on FOX News about being fired by ABC for her controversial tweet toward Valerie Jarrett.
While Roseanne’s tweet was unacceptable, he said, she had a right to speak her mind.
“Everybody is too sensitive now in comedy,” he said. “If you’re going to go after Roseanne, then you have to go after the rest of Hollywood and the double standard should not be.”
Piscopo, who is best known for his work on “Saturday Night Live” in the early 1980s, recalled Richard Pryor’s references to President Ronald Reagan during his skits. In his opinion, it’s no longer fun to be in the entertainment business.
“When I came up Pryor was the king,” he said. “What he said about Ronald Reagan -- I used to go, ‘Oh my gosh, don’t say it,’ but he didn’t get fired for it.”