If you haven't heard yet, hurry and take a look/listen before it gets buried ... Anthony Jeselnik - comedian and host of Comedy Central's newest comedy series/ late night weekly talk show, The Jeselnik Offensive, may have already stepped in it ... and only in like his 4th episode out ....Ok. A quick little catch up for what went down - a man by the name of Adam Strange was killed in New Zealand a couple weeks back by a shark attack. Jeselnik, as the title of his show indicates, holds little to nothing back, per his comedy style, in order to shock and offend. So, not only did he make light of the tragedy, he devoted an entire skit called "Shark Party", complete with a song & dance number, to celebrate the event.
"Too far"? That's what a lot of people feel, as throughout the bit a bloody surfer parades around the stage while Jeselnik gets a lap dance from a "sexy female shark" ... Here's the video:
Some of his controversial comments included:
"So when a shark kills a man, you gotta give thanks!"
"And lets not forget the man that made this all possible ... Smile, you son of a bitch!"
What is interesting is that Comedy Central has yet to remove this clip from Youtube (if its still there by the time you are reading this) ... Perhaps they are playing by the age old adage - "Any publicity is GOOD publicity"?
There is also a response video circulating, of an offended New Zealander calling the COO of Viacom to register his disdain:
Whatever the fallout, and whichever side you stand on, Anthony Jeselnik is definitely making a name for himself. I'm quite certain this won't be the last time that viewers will be demanding his head on a plate.
The Jeselnik Offensive airs Tuesdays @ 10:30pm on Comedy Central.
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I would be very surprised if Comedy Central and Jeselnik, even if they don't publibly admit it, didn't seriously regret this clip. If celebrating the deaths of people you don't know is funny, then the Westboro Baptists must be hilarious! It's also baffling for people to talk about the sanctity of "freedom of speech" as some unalienable right to say what you like without censorship, when so many comments have been removed from the facebook pages of both Anthony Jeselnik and Comedy Central - in fact as of this writing Jeselnik's page no longer allows people to post at all. Wait, did he not find death threats funny? Some people might have, where is their right to publicly laugh at Jeselnik's imaginary death when he has the right to publicly laugh at Adam's actual death?
ReplyDeleteHere is another question to ponder, which I know has been raised already but anyway I'll say it again: Would it have been okay for Jeselnik to mock the photo of Christopher Stevens (the US ambassador killed in Libya last September) on his show and have a party to celebrate his death barely a week after his funeral? If not, why not?