Protect Each Other Before You Protect The Stage

Bullying happens everywhere. Still.

It doesn't end in high school. 

Bullying occurs regularly on Facebook, in politics, over religious views, because of racial differences.

Bullying is the worst.

Moreover, trying to protect your right to bully is the worst. It's the shittiest thing we as people do and we do it often.

I'm not going to go into all of the niches where bullying happens because I'm not qualified to speak to all of them. However, I WILL speak to bullying in comedy. 

It happens ALL OF THE TIME in the comedy world.

It has happened to me. It has happened to people around me. It has happened to people close to me and people I've never met. 

Recently and most shockingly, I saw a woman bullied in a Comedy Central special.
This woman's name is Damienne Merlina. I don't claim to know her as a person or as a comedian, just that she is both of those things. A relatively well known comedian calls her out by name in his NATIONALLY TELEVISED SPECIAL. He then goes on a tirade about how big she is and how she's missing one of her arms after admitting he doesn't know her well. Here's the punchline. THERE FUCKING ISN'T ONE. HILARIOUS. 

Rather than name this comedian, I'll let Damienne's beautiful response video do the talking.

This infuriates me. This "comedian" will probably fight tooth and nail to protect his freedom of speech on stage. THIS IS NOT WHAT THAT FIGHT IS FOR. If you're fighting for your right to punch down, to bully, I'm going to fight you. (Not physically. I know my limitations, folks.) 

Now, I don't know the context of their relationship but I don't have to. I will never, ever use someone's name onstage in a means of punching down. Nor should you. It's tasteless. It's mean. And yes, it's bullying. The worst kind of bullying. 

I'm sure there's a litany of mouth breathing, open mikers who think this "bit" is hilarious. 

That's a different fight all together. HAHAHAHAHA! Someone is really hurt by this. HAHAHAHA! She's gonna watch this and feel bad for a really long time. HAHAHAHAHA! Fuck that entirely. 

Being offensive or bullying without jokes just isn't comedy. You're breaking an unwritten code you have with your audience who paid to laugh. If you make fun of Damienne by name ANYONE could be next. Way to build a safe bridge to your audience! An audience wants to connect with you through laughter. If you're getting laughs by bullying someone, you're literally asking people to gang up on this woman. And some of them go for the ride with you. You're using your power to hurt people and that sucks. It's cruel and uncreative.

Why protect the stage if you're not going to look out for all of the people that use it? 

Damienne is a comedian. Am I next? Are you next? 

This guy (notice I'm no longer calling him a comedian) has made a career of just calling people out. 

He was involved in calling Carlos Mencia out publicly with Joe Rogan.
While, I hate joke thieves. I hate bullying even more. He called Howard Stern old and got notoriety for that. I guess that's what you do when you don't feel good about your comedy. You piss people off and you make a career out of it. 

If you protect your right to tell jokes because you want to be racist, homophobic, sexist or you want to flat out bully people, fuck you. Comedy isn't going to be enough therapy for you. You need the real thing stat. 

To Damienne Merlina: you are an inspiration to me. Your response video is beautiful, brave, important and spot on. I have your back and I know thousands of comedians who do too. 

Stay the course, my friend. 

#djblove