It takes courage to dare to voice an opposing viewpoint. South Park only apologized once, satirically, for NOT having offended you YET. They said that they were very busy, but please be patient. We will get to you and we promise that we will offend you. After they ran an episode satirizing Scientology, Chef (Isaac Hayes, a Scientologist) quit. What a hypocrite!
However, they draw the line at satirizing Islam. Supposedly, they actually had an episode ready to go, but they chickened out.
Sony was threatened by a foreign government (North Korea) not to release a comedy about their president.
When I was a child and someone would do something that someone else didn't like, the response would be, "It's a free country." How naive, freedom isn't free. Everything in life has a price. Air is free. You just breathe. However, not all your rights are just handed to you, understood by all and accepted by all. Oftentimes, you must demand your rights, fight for your rights, and be willing to suffer the consequences for daring to insist on what is already yours by law.
"Does this dress make me look fat?" This is one case where self censorship may not be an act of cowardice but an act of kindness.
Are you pro choice or pro life? Depending on the group of people you are with, how many people today would have the moral courage to answer that question truthfully? FREE SPEECH...Really? If you know six people who could rationally discuss that question, then you have a rare group of friends. May I please join the group?

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KIRSTEN HEITZ

Watch and Dialogue with Someone

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2017

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I don't think the title gives this documentary enough credit. I thought maybe it would only go so far as defending insult comics, but it touches on a disturbing trend of diminishing freedom of speech in the US. Not at the hand of the law, but via our overindulgence in emotional sensitivity.
I used to think, as US citizens, we have free speech, with the caveat that we need to accept however others react. This doc points out that mob mentality-- hastened by social media-- often leads to overreaction, including professional terminations and death threats.

On the other hand, there is a legitimate reason for hate speech laws. The documentary focuses on comics whose jokes are going over people's heads-- all they hear is the profanity on the joke's surface. It does touch on the rights of hate groups to protest, but the frequent public outrage comes from fear that this person is using their platform-- a powerful megaphone-- to endorse harmful beliefs that have a history of perpetuating social injustice. Also, not everyone uses their platform with the intention of bettering society. We are not just dumb sponges soaking up every crazy idea that comes along, but we are affected by what we see. Hate groups spread their message online, and that's how they recruit, after all. IDK. I'm just saying...

Now to just throw out a random thought-- does freedom of speech and the press hurt our ability to keep the media honest?

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dennis hall

Is There A Longer Directors Cut Available?

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2020

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Every now and then you read something or see something on tv or at the movies, and you come away thinking "is there more of this?". Can We Take A Joke? is one of those things. I knew the run time going in was just over an hour and as the end crept near and I knew it was nearly over, I just found myself wanting more. Free speech and the idea of comedy being a way to keep speech alive and vibrant is something I want more of. This topic is so rich and so deep that this could have gone on for another 2-3 hours and I honestly would have been engaged the entire time. I love this exploration and the ideas the show presents and I feel like the subject is so much deeper that I wish this was a series that would explore it even further than the somewhat cursory glance this show represents. Dont get me wrong, what the show has done is great, but I want more examples and exploration of the subject matter presented. As a fan of comedy and someone who believes in free speech as one of the greatest pillars of a healthy society, I loved this show and would love to see more on the subject.

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Margoths

Cover your children's ears!

Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2016

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I thought this movie would address the intolerance in our culture that's grown out of the need to avoid hurting anyone's feelings. Instead there seemed not to be any coherent message. I did learn that Lenny Bruce who died of a drug overdose is a cultural icon because he stood up to the intolerance of the pre-1964 culture that believed obscene speech lowered the morals of its people. So now we can be grateful to hear the f-word used liberally and all sorts of intimate bodily functions and activities mocked -- because that's so amusing. I learned most comedians are crude, rude, and often over-weight. I learned that the 50 or so people who belong to the Hillsborough Baptist family are a big threat to our freedoms. The main concern at colleges seemed to be that people took offense at 'art' (musicals, comedy, etc.) on campus that amounted to sacrilege or mocked our history. I learned that comedians today think obscenity is witty and that they're concerned that the pc police are after them -- the civil folks gave up the hope for inoffensive comedy decades ago!.

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