Don’t Let the Grifters In

Something that has become more and more apparent is that the far right manosphere grifters and men who identify themselves as comedians are trying to essentially leave that sphere and merge into the popular media. They act as if they weren’t a major cause of why everything is as bad as it is currently, and didn’t help the tyrannical dictator in charge of the US getting reelected because they decided to dip their ignorant, uneducated toes into politics. They have now become the villains of the entertainment world. You can tell that many of them are trying to distance themselves from their current predicament by either condemning the dictator’s actions and the actions of his regime in the government, trying to be more supportive of more progressive topics, having more educated guests on their shows, or trying to get into more crowd-pleasing movies and tv series. 

There is a problem with their plan though. They are still mediocre men and mediocre comedians, before shifting their sights on trying to be “sorry for their actions”. They still cater to those crowds, and despite some of them trying to call out Joe Rogan and his ilk, or trying to talk to people who know more about the stuff that they bullshit their way through on their podcasts, they still aren’t very bright. Shane Gillis was infamous for almost joining SNL before getting fired for past racist comments, but despite how he comes across like he doesn’t enjoy being part of Rogan’s sphere of idiots, he has a reportedly popular Netflix series, is able to have actual comedy specials, and still gets access to being on SNL as a host. He still hangs with these guys, went to the UFC fight at the White House, alongside mediocre white man Nate Bargatze, and then acts as if it isn’t a political act to shake hands with grifters and their idol, Donald Trump. 

These low-rent wastes of space, along with their entire fanbases, fail to get that art is inherently political, and taking part in events such as the White House UFC Fight, the Riyadh Comedy Festival, and continuously hanging out with people like Rogan and his merry band of valueless buffoons does say something about them as people. So, hey dudes – you want to stop being demonized? Want to stop being seen as scraping the bottom of the barrel? It’s very easy: you simply stop hanging out in the Rogan-Austin comedy scene, stop going to right-wing conservative events, and seriously get the hell out of the career and space in which you have put yourself. 

Obviously, opinions and people can change. Some people may have been part of bad groups or had bad habits or histories, and were able to get out of those groups or turn it around. It is possible to change, but those people who did had to make a 100% shift in their lifestyles, perspectives, and/or had extremely life-changing/threatening wake-up calls. They had an awakening and went cold turkey, cutting ties with those folks that caused them to stew in such hateful bigotry and rhetoric. The lesson here is that you simply can not realize that you made a mistake, and still do those same things that got you an audience. If you can’t accept that, in reality, it will take time to change, and you might lose your current audience to gain a new audience, well, then that’s too bad. Change takes effort, which is something that these grifter comics don’t seem to understand. 

This lesson also applies to people who have enough power to do whatever they want in the entertainment world, but still cater to or hang with people who have inserted themselves into the MAGA crowd. Adam Sandler is by no means the biggest chud in the world of entertainment, but despite being conservative, as is most of Hollywood and the entertainment industry, he still keeps an outward image that he is not one of those scumbags who have ruined our country. So, why does he keep working with the insipid and worst SNL cast member Rob Schneider, who has basically put himself in the same camp as Roseanne Barr and Kid Rock? Are you so pathetic, Mr. Sandler, that you are willing to overlook the loserdom of this guy, because you two were on the same seasons of SNL? You don’t need him for your movies. He needs you, and you don’t need to give him time and money when it’s not your fault that he ruined his own career and got blackballed. You can’t be chasing after Oscars with provocative projects such as Uncut Gems and be seen as family friendly with films like Leo and Hotel Transylvania, while siding with a group of people who are tearing apart families and taking away the rights of some of your very own celebrity and non-celebrity friends and families. I think it’s critical that we need to not give Sandler, and his work, a free pass, now, more than ever. 

As I write this, the upcoming Street Fighter movie is generating a lot of excitement and hype for being seen as something that actually looks like it loves being based on the goofy over-the-top fighting-game franchise. It looks fun. It looks entertaining. With that said, Andrew Schultz, one of the inept men who helped to get our dictator reelected is in the movie, and I can’t really find the will to support it. Sure, I have Alamo Drafthouse’s Season Pass so I won’t be boosting the movie’s box-office draw or giving Schultz and co. my money, but I would be handing them my time in a life span that is, after all, not infinite. What does it say about me that I would be willing to overlook that one of the biggest sellouts and grifters in the comedy world is trying to get into the good graces of Middle America by being in a film that more people might see than any comedy special he will ever release? You can argue that it is perfect casting to make him Dan Hibiki, whose whole point is that he sucks in the franchise, and Schultz himself sucks as a human being, but you could have gotten anyone else, really, and did not have to cast someone who helped to ruin our democracy because he wanted to say slurs in comedy routines. 

I’m sure my thoughts come off as self righteous and mean to some degree, but observing these people making half-hearted attempts to change and wanting to be more mainstream rubs me the wrong way. You expect me to give these guys a chance when they have done nothing but help to destroy society because of their own failed lives? Why should I support their work when they won’t put in the work to better themselves or truly disown the audiences that they have gained? Personally, I think that they shouldn’t be allowed into the more mainstream entertainment media. They dug their graves, and it’s not our responsibility, nor should it be anyone else’s, in the comedy and entertainment industry, to rescue them. Sadly, it seems as if, at the present, there are no consequences for their actions, no matter how hard we fight to get these corrupt and terrible people out of their seats of influence. It’s gross to see these weasels do, well, what weasels do.