Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) against the culture of cancellation: “Every joke has a victim”

This was stated by the British comedian “the work of the comedian must offend”. Having said that, one would think that the author of the sentence is the always provocative Ricky Gervais. Hand: Did Rowan Atkinson say that, the “always clumsy?” Mr. Bean.

“It seems to me that the comedian’s job must offend, or have the potential to offend, and that potential cannot be emptied,” Atkinson said in an interview with the Irish Timesaddressing the burning problem of “delete culture”.

“Every joke has a victim. This is the definition of a joke. It makes someone, something or an idea look ridiculous, ”Atkinson said, promoting Man versus Apehis new series on Netflix, premiered on June 24.

“I think you have to be very, very careful what you can make jokes about,” he continued. Do you always have to get up? For real? What if there was someone who is extremely conceited, arrogant, aggressive, self-satisfied, who is below society? Not all of them are in Parliament or at the Palace ”.

And he concluded: “There are many extremely conceited and self-satisfied people in what would be considered the lowest in society, who also deserve to be stopped. In a truly free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about anything. “.

resistance

Atkinson isn’t the only comedian who has spoken out against the culture of cancellation lately. The American Jerrod Carmichele She said the social phenomenon is “invented” for political and financial purposes.

“If you make art and it causes controversy or something… that’s exactly what it’s about. But The cancellation thing, I think it’s just to give bored people something interesting to talk about.like a bad ghost, “he said.

Carmichael then shared: “The comedians who are forging this self-created war, I understand. It’s good for ticket sales and it’s good to have an opponent. But at some point, it gets petulant. It is as if children are saying, ‘Why are you mad at me?’ Much of this is self-created. “

And Kevin Hart too

Kevin Hart he also said that he personally doesn’t “give a shit” about erasing the culture. “If anyone has done something truly harmful, then absolutely a consequence must be appliedHart said.

“But when suddenly you discover that when faced with some opinions, they take offense: ‘Someone said this …! We must eliminate them! ‘ What are we talking about? It’s already too much “

For its part, seth roden admitted that some jokes don’t “age well” in a 2021 interview, adding, “For me, it’s not worth complaining to the extent that I see other comedians complaining.”

The day Mr. Bean was killed

But going back to the beginning, networks had already been a determining scenario in 2017 for Rowan Atkinson: that was when the video went viral fake news of his death. Furthermore, the fake news was related to a cyber scam.

By clicking on the image, the user was redirected to a page where a “security error” appeared warning him that his computer was locked and that he should have called 0800 …

To make this call, the user was asked to leave their credit card to purchase new software, which was actually a whole process. to spread a virus on the Internet.

CJL