Rant #2,276: Crazy About the La La La

Let me go on record that I do not like current comedy, because as Steve Martin said years and years ago, "comedy is not pretty," and I have taken that to heart, adding the word "current" to what he said.

"Current comedy is not pretty."

And it isn't. Rather than being able to laugh at ourselves, current comedy knocks holes into people, always has some type of political bent, and, well, simply isn't funny.

Thus, I am not a fan of Kevin Hart at all.

But tweets that he made years ago should not derail him from hosting the ultimate self-congratulatory brown-nose event of our lives, the Academy Awards.

Yet, Hart has stepped down from the role he so proudly announced he would hold just two days ago, because supposedly homophobic tweets he made years ago have surfaced, and people who get hysterical at just about anything have made life miserable for the comedian during the past 48 hours.

Once his past tweets surfaced, he decided, as to not take away the focus on the films and awards that are being given, he would step away from his hosting duties. He even issued an apology to the annoying LGBTQ community for his past "indiscretions."

Again, the witch hunt is on, and if it can trap Hart, it can trap any one of us who have ever voiced an opinion that might be seen as going way over the top, and which some people--usually a small minority of people--find offensive.

First off, Hart should not have pulled out of the show as its host. This would have shown resolve, force and strength against a small group of people who get offended at the drop of a hat.

They get offended at the coming of snow, why their car doesn't start, and maybe, why they feel they don't fit into society, so they take it out on someone like Hart, who appears to be a good natured person who has gotten caught in a whirlwind of nonsense related to things he said years ago.

And it is not like this hasn't come up before. According to Hart, he has made previous apologies, but this time around, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences demanded that he make more apologies, and he pretty much refused, saying that they have already been made.

And yes, he also said, "The world has gone crazy."

He is spot on in that pronouncement.

When did we lost the ability to laugh at ourselves, to chuckle at our society's personal foibles?

When that happened, we lost the ability to be funny, we lost the ability to, well, be human.

Pointing out one's limitations in a comedic way is in no way nasty if it is done with a lighter tone.

Don Rickles, for one, made his career as a comedian by doing so, and he always prefaced what he was doing by stating to the audience that he meant no harm in anything that he was going to say ... and he then went after black, white, Asian, Jewish, non-Jewish and all other members of his audience unabated, and people of all persuasions laughed, and laughed some more, at his shenanigans.

He was pointing out the condition of the human condition, and it was funny as could be.

In today's times, where some people get completely sensitive at just about anything--seek and ye shall find--I can almost say, begrudgingly, that I think Rickles died just at the right time, right before this silliness came to the fore.

Can you imagine what these ultra-sensitive people would be saying today if Rickles plied his trade in today's environment?

It is quite clear that those who get offended at the drop of a hat--or in this case, several past tweets by Hart--have great misgivings with themselves, are still not comfortable in their own skins, and so they take it out on often innocent people who may have said things that straddle what may be considered a line in the sand by some.

And it is all so wrong--look at what is happening with the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside," and recent knocks against racism and inequality dumped on the cartoons "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

This is all utter nonsense, brought on by people who need to seek psychiatric care, rather than use that time to find something to be offended at.

Well, it has caught its latest victim in Hart.

"The opportunity of a lifetime," according to Hart, has now become "the disaster of the current moment," and Hart has gotten ensnared in this all-encompassing web.

Enough already.

But the offended will continue to be offended, and this PC nonsense is killing our culture, period.

Hart is the latest victim, but when will "White Christmas" be looked at as offensive, when will Santa Claus be another figure of ridicule, but most importantly, when will independent thought be quashed because it doesn't follow the program of some people who get offended if they are having a bad hair day?

Me, I could care less what people say about me. Plenty of people have blocked me on Facebook, and you know what, I wear those blocks as a "red badge of courage" against the PC backlash.

And since I am not a famous person, I guess it really doesn't matter.

Hart works in an industry that will remember his past indiscretions like the elephant that it is with a long memory, and if his past indiscretions do not jibe with the common thought of that community, well, today's hot star could be tomorrow's washed up trash in almost an instant.

Our right to free speech? That has gone the way of innocent until proven guilty, I guess.

Personally, I wish that Hart could have stood his ground, but I also know why he couldn't.

And that is really, really sad.

Have a good weekend. Speak to you again on Monday.