Anti-Woke Comics Aren’t Just Wrong, They’re Bad At Comedy, Too

Comics used to relentlessly mock and deconstruct power elites, too many of them are targeting defenseless kids.

Roseanne Barr on her new standup on Fox Nation

by Bob Cesca

WASHINGTON, DC – I used to love Sebastian Maniscalco’s standup. His stories about his Italian family were immensely relatable to me, his physical comedy was among the greats, and his observations about life’s minutia sometimes rivaled Seinfeld. In one special, he talked about how if there’s a bandaid floating in a swimming pool it horrifyingly follows you no matter how much you try to splash it away. Excellent.

But his latest Netflix special lost me, and Sebastian lost a fan. After an extended chunk about how stupid his wife is, he explained that his kid goes to school with a boy who identifies as a lion, and so the teacher installed a litter box in the bathroom for the lion-boy to pee in.

In a new low for his typically old fashioned point of view, this was obviously an extended take about how trans and non-binary people are ridiculous. Especially the children. Yes, we’re verbally beating up children now in clubs, in theaters, and, following Dave Chappelle’s anti-trans lead, on streaming channels like Netflix. Whereas comics used to relentlessly mock and deconstruct power elites, too many of them are targeting defenseless kids now – not to mention adults who are simply living their lives according to who they are, harming literally no one.

This is the comedic sensibility of the Anti-Woke Comic.