Jerry Sadowitz

[Bearsinmotion]

Is anyone following this?

Really strange - the Pleasance theatre have cancelled Jerry Sadowitz’s show at the fringe, citing audience walkouts and complaints of extreme misogyny and racism. But have not quoted what was said that was so offensive even to him. Both Sadowitz and people who were there have questioned the walkouts. The show had many, many warnings about offensive content, and that he was going to be getting his cock out, which he did, as do other comedians at the Fringe.

there are a few comedians supporting him on Twitter, around the defence of free speech. But what stood out to me in the language was that audience members felt “unsafe,” yet I have not seen a single person say that was them. Graham Linehan has written about it here. Just wondering if it was related to the TRA frenzy as Glinner implies, with manufactured outrage or whether Sadowitz genuinely went too far this time.

I used to love Jerry back in the day, and he was one of the few calling out Jimmy Saville when it counted, so I want to believe he’s not been targeted for once again calling out those doing real harm…

Think the Pleasance's actions really symbolises the Fringe's ongoing transition from truly subversive comedy to prescribed, diluted and boring.

And as for Josie Long, she has her own prejudices but seems to think her sh**e doesn't stink.

There are loads more venues than there were last week
Maybe it's all a fake outrage to sell more tickets!
Go woke go broke in reverse

I guess JS is probably famous enough to weather the storm. One gets the sense that the bigger the online tantrums and the more extreme the accusations the more people will be intrigued and attempt to book tickets at other venues. (I'm assuming here that there haven't been any accusations of sexual or racist abuses happening outside of his act). The weak point always seems to be the risk of the venue cancelling rather than audiences being unprepared to buy tickets.

Perhaps I should point out that the reason why this is a feminist cause is because societal norms change all the time.

Hard as I look I can't find any thread in FWR reguarding Roy Chubby Brown's cancelled shows ten months ago.

Why were they cancelled @Plantsandthings ?

Hard as I look I can't find any thread in FWR reguarding Roy Chubby Brown's cancelled shows ten months ago.

Do you expect threads on FWR for every minor news event that has a tangential relationship to feminism? No doubt if someone had started a thread on it there would have been some responses.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9959985/Roy-Chubby-Brown-cancelled-Fans-blast-woke-decision-axe-comics-Sheffield-gig.html

RCB is a hugely successful comedian, Jerry Sadowitz is nowhere near as well known.

RCB is a hugely successful comedian, Jerry Sadowitz is nowhere near as well known.

So what? There are many people more famous than Sadowitz with no threads about them on FWR. You seem to think “this thread exists and a thread about RCB doesn’t exist” is an observation worth making, why?

I have to say over the last couple of years I've become much more acutely aware of the importance of free speech. I've always believed in the idea but being on the receiving end of cancellation (for the first time in my life) has been a sharp reminder that it also means standing up for things that I personally find offensive. I haven't heard of Roy "Chubby" Brown before. It's interesting that he was also accused of being “racist, homophobic, and misogynistic”.

Same for me @Signalbox
Being on the 'wrong side of history' was an eye opening moment

I can see how cancel culture has been slowly spreading. I hadn't heard about the RCB council cancellations. This cancer against free speech is very worrying. I don't know if they were all left-leaning councils but I am becoming very disillusioned with left wing authoritarianism

Well, you are free to go ahead and start one.

Always in the name of protecting women and minorities of course. Not bothered about protecting them the rest of the time

I think RCB is a different kettle of fish altogether.

If anyone has ever seen the documentary of his life and "behind the scenes" at his shows, he seems to hold a lot of the same opinions as his on stage persona.

It's on Youtube (or was) for anyone that wants to see it. It can be quite uncomfortable viewing.

But I still don't believe in censorship.
I just choose not to go to his shows.

That’s a carefully-worded, and interestingly-worded, statement.

The complaints came from “those in the building”.

It does not say that complaints came from audience members.

It’s also interesting that they have realised that they needed to come up with a justification for why they no longer consider his material to “align with their values” when his material hasn’t changed and they’ve been booking him for years.

That was the thing that struck me about their original statement: their assertion of their values. What that told me was that: the Pleasance’s values are fully aligned with vile comments about women, given that JS’a act always (according to his fans) includes vile comments about women.

With that context, it’s interesting that they appear to have realised that they needed to explain their sudden and new enlightenment on that point. And in their attempt to defend their apparent hypocrisy / sudden change of position / previous tolerance for misogyny, they deploy “progress” and “a changing world” and moving boundaries to explain why they are now deplatforming JS.

It’s interesting that they didn’t do any thinking about whether JS might be at odds with their view that misogynistic language has no place in their venues before they booked him, and that that thought only occurred to them as a consideration to include in their defence of their decision to deplatform him after that decision had attracted questions and criticism.

It makes me wonder if the BBC are going to be inspired to take a leaf out of the Pleasance’s book and do something about the casual sexism, and vicious misogyny in the case of Frankie Boyle, which they platform. Unlike with a JS show, where no one is forced to buy a ticket, we are all required to pay for the BBC’s programming decisions to broadcast panel shows with six men and one token woman.

Have had a look. I still think it was a mistake to cancel RCB, for the same reason stated about JS. I find RCB repulsive but as soon as you start banning and cancelling him you give him a cultural cache that he doesn’t deserve to have.

It makes his fans more vocal and gives them a feeling of being an oppressed minority. My highly racist aunt seems to think she is some sort of Spartacus now because her views are being banned.

I think John McWhorter (who is amazing) is right actually. Banning racist and sexist language has not cured racism and sexism. It have just made it harder to see who are the racists and the sexist and call them out on their views. The argument often being ‘well I didn’t say anything wrong’. No but they heavily implied it but in such a way as to make it hard to prove.

Good points, Loobi. At no point does the Pleasance mention 'audience'. It's all 'people' and 'people in the building'.

I mean, I have sympathy for anyone who was working and was offended. That's a totally different kettle of fish than an audience member being offended.

I haven't heard of Roy "Chubby" Brown before. It's interesting that he was also accused of being “racist, homophobic, and misogynistic”

Exactly the same as Sadowitz, yet here we are defending the one who exposed his penis to a woman in the front row.

It's a strange old world.

Has anyone tweeted or been quoted that they were in the audience and they left, were offended too much or saw other people leaving. If no-one has that seems odd.
Thanks for the article about RCB, if you swap the names it seems a very similar situation. It might have got a mention, at the time, on the wider MN.

Must have missed the thread you started on that. Sorry about that.

They added: "A large number of people walked out of Jerry Sadowitz’s show as they felt uncomfortable and unsafe to remain in the venue

I've often felt "uncomfortable" when watching comedy before but I've never felt "unsafe". I wonder what they thought could potentially happen to them?

@thisweekstop40 No one is defending him. If he got his dick out at a woman in the audience then he is gross.

The point is that he should be called out in that behaviour. It should be discussed. Just blanket banning stuff stifles those discussions.

And there is the inconsistency too. There are loads of comics, shows and performers all over the country who do edgy offensive humour. Are we going to go around measuring the offence on their shows and choosing which ones to cancel. What’s the yard stick here?

This thread is discussing the reasons that The Pleasance have given for their decision to deplatform JS. The Pleasance haven’t given exposing his penis as part of the reason for their decision. The behaviour which they consider to have crossed a boundary, as set out in their statement, is the use of unacceptable language. There is no mention of nudity in their defence of their deplatforming decision.

I didn't think it was relevant to Feminism: Sex & gender discussions.

Why not? He was cancelled for misogyny I thought? Mind you I've only read about it about 5 minutes ago.

I also pick most of my threads from active convos rather than topic area. Sue me.

BBC article about it, bit of an interview with Stuart Lee and speculation about the complainants:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-62546551