Whitney Cummings fears comedians are being treated like ‘enemy’ amid woke culture

20 March 2023

Whitney Cummings fears comedians are being treated like the “enemy” amid woke culture.

Whitney Cummings fears comedians are being treated like the ‘enemy’ amid woke culture

The comedian, 40, is set to launch her new series ‘Whitney Cummings Presents’ on free-to-view streamer OFTV in which she will interview fellow comedians to analyse the craft of forming jokes and said she wanted it to be a “safe space” where stand-ups did not need to feel intimated.

She told Page Six: “I don’t have to tell you, over the past couple of years, comedy has taken quite a hit.

“It became super obvious that there were some issues in our society… which you know, it’s usually our job to comment on and confront, and all of a sudden, comedians started becoming like the enemy.”

Whitney added comedians would previously have been seen as being responsible for joking about “sensitive subjects” to “help everyone cope and to laugh at horrible things”.

But she now thinks “all of a sudden for a litany of reasons, people started saying, ‘Comedians are bullies and they’re causing violence’ and we’re like, ‘Wait, what?'”

Whitney also highlighted her feeling it is a dangerous time to be a comic due to Will Smith’s attack on Chris Rock at last year’s Oscars and Dave Chappelle being targeted by a man armed with a weapon last May at the ‘Netflix Is a Joke’ festival.

Yet she added she thinks Comedy Central’s Roasts series had “started getting racist, actually homophobic”.