Tucker Carlson: Politics Killed Comedy

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
CARLSON: "Kathy Griffin got canned by CNN this afternoon, a day after she posted a picture of herself posing ISIS style with Donald Trump's bloodied severed head. The image itself was appalling, violent, creepy, weird. It was also -- this may be the main problem -- totally unfunny. Kathy Griffin bills herself as a comedian but this was not comedy, it was a political stunt of the dumbest kind. Your eighth-grader wouldn't do this. It's too stupid. It wasn't a departure for Griffin. She hasn't been funny in years, assuming she ever was. People clap for her not because they are amused but because they agree with the politics. That is not art. His affirmation. An awful lot of comedy is like that all of a sudden. Ever watch a cement to be? If you like. Use of righteousness and massive doses, or try John Oliver or Bill Maher or Trevor Noah, or Stephen Colbert. Some of these guys used to be funny, but not Samantha Bee, she was never funny. Now, they are playing to the biases and vanities of their audiences and it's working, which means they are all the exactly the same, prisoners of conformity, which is always the sworn enemy of art. Step out of line and you pay the price, as Dave Chapelle, who is a genius, learned when he returned from retirement not long ago and dared to go where a sacred cow or two. That used to be what comedians did and we were grateful to hear someone tell the truth. Now, they are booed off the stage for daring to do that. Humor is dead. Politics killed it."