David Spade thinks people get a little too comfortable being offended.
Spade defended comedians’ right to push boundaries, even when their material falls short during an episode of his podcast, “Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade.”
Comedian Shane Gillis sparked backlash after mocking women at the gym during his “Saturday Night Live” monologue.
“I haven’t been to the gym in so long. I didn’t know women dress like whores now?” » said Gillis.
“Look, I’m sorry, there’s no other way to describe… Have you seen the shorts? Those neon lights, they’re like artificial bait (shorts), and the wrinkles go around the cheeks and all combine at the asshole. And don’t look! You’re not allowed to look.”
Carvey didn’t believe the outrage over Gillis’ joke. Rather than seeing the remarks as an attack on women, the comedian argued that the backlash overlooked a fundamental element of stand-up: saying things that aren’t meant to be taken literally.
“I just didn’t understand the hubbub,” Carvey said. “Only because to me, I just saw it as what we call – I’m just going to say it – a joke. Like he didn’t – when you tell jokes, you’re not literally saying that women are whores. You’re literally joking. Isn’t that kind of idea? No? Did I just get cancelled?”
Spade’s assistant and executive producer of the podcast, Heather Santoro, weighed in with a different point of view, arguing that offensive humor should still make people laugh.
“The joke must be really funny,” Santoro could be heard saying off-mic. “If you’re going to call a woman a whore, it’s got to be funny. And it wasn’t.”
Carvey argued that in comedy clubs he would bet the joke was “destroyed”, but that “Saturday Night Live” was simply “not the right place” for it.
“He had a few laughs, but, of course, I think he knows one of them is going to be a button pusher,” Spade noted. “But he doesn’t care.”
“Very well-dressed young women make up the majority of the ‘SNL’ audience,” Carvey conceded. “So, all right, Heather, I agree with you.”
Spade also called out what he sees as Hollywood’s double standards, questioning why some people are subject to criticism while others are seemingly off-limits — and suggesting that not every joke or controversy between celebrities has to spark outrage.
“I will say it’s almost comical that there are people saying, ‘Oh, don’t make fun of OnlyFans. Don’t make fun of strippers. They’re sex workers. They should be respected.’ And then everyone hates Sydney Sweeney,” Spade said.
“And it’s like, ‘Which one is it?’ Like, you know what I mean? Let’s all decide what we hate and what we don’t hate and why not relax.
“Sometimes people just have to mind their own business,” Spade said. “We don’t need to comment on everything.”
“We do it,” he joked, speaking of himself and Carvey, “because everyone loves what we do.”
Carvey suggested that the public has increasingly blurred the line between finding a joke unfunny and believing it should not be told at all.
“It’s the idea of - there’s two things. The joke is funny – eh. The joke is not funny, the joke offends me – the joke should not be allowed to be told,” Carvey explained.
Spade, who appeared on “SNL” from 1990 to 1996, explained that comedians on the show often face a different level of scrutiny when a controversial joke backfires.
“I think on SNL, if something kills, it passes. If something totally blows up, then they have a lot of problems,” he noted.
“Well, did that kill him at the dress rehearsal?” » asked Carver.
“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think Shane talked about it,” Spade added. “I think he’s that kind of Chappelle where he does it, and he walks away and then everyone fights for it.”
Gn entert
