Kamala's comedy cult: Late-night hosts venerate veep



Regrets, Jerry Seinfeld has a few.

No, he isn’t apologizing for skewering pro-Palestinian protesters at his comedy appearances earlier this year.

'Maybe this election, maybe you don’t have a candidate that you love, but you have to have an issue that you, maybe the somebody you love is you.'

He’d do that again in a heartbeat.

He wants to take back his thoughts on the “extreme left” crushing comedy.

Et tu, Jerry?

In an interview published in Variety yesterday, the "Seinfeld" alum mused:

Does culture change and are there things that I used to say that [I can’t because] people are always moving [the gate]? Yes, but that’s the biggest and easiest target. You can’t say certain words about groups. So what? The accuracy of your observation has to be 100 times finer than that just to be a comedian. ... So I don’t think, as I said, the "extreme left" has done anything to inhibit the art of comedy.

Did Seinfeld catch holy heck in the comedy community for that initial opinion? The backpedal here is Tim Walz-weird, Jerry!

And he was right the first time, of course.

'Joker's' home invasion

The movie that scared Warner Bros. executives silly is coming home for Halloween.

“Joker: Folie a Deux,” which may lose the studio up to $200 million, will be out on VOD Oct. 29. It opened Oct. 4, crashed at the box office, and then plummeted an astonishing 80% in week two.

Who could have predicted a film that ditched everything that made the first “Joker” click and added musical numbers might disappoint at the box office?

The film feels like an elaborate trick from director Todd Phillips. Guess he loved that ”Joker burns money” meme so much he brought it to life.

Hathaway's hash

Word salad. It’s catchy and delicious!

Consider Oscar winner Anne Hathaway. She dropped in on a Broadway fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this week. The “Les Miserables” star assumed the best way to honor the presidential candidate was to talk just like Harris.

“We got a big choice to make, America, you have to make a choice, you do have to vote. Maybe this election, maybe you don’t have a candidate that you love, but you have to have an issue that you, maybe the somebody you love is you. You gotta vote for yourself, America,” she said.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, no?

No ha-has from Harris hacks

We knew late-night hosts have no shame, but this is getting absurd.

Both Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert shifted from partisan hacks to literal cogs in the DNC machine earlier this year. They hosted Democratic fundraisers for President Joe Biden before the not-so-active senior’s cognitive decline made its national debut June 27 at the presidential debate.

The comedians covered up that open secret for three-plus years. And happily so!

Now they’re pouncing and seizing on a generic medical report from Harris that says she’s in excellent health.

“This weekend, Harris released her latest medical report, which states that she's ‘in excellent health.’ It's great that just the words ‘excellent health’ kinda feel like a dig at Donald Trump. They should follow that up with ‘can walk up stairs’ and ‘is potty trained.’”

Satire needs a kernel of truth to be funny. Break out a magnifying glass, and you still won’t find anything funny there.

Sad? Yes. Funny? Not so much.

'Saturday Night' dies

“Saturday Night” is dying at the box office.

The film capturing the chaotic moments from “Saturday Night Live’s” first episode earned mostly positive reviews and solid box office results from its New York/L.A. debut. The film opened wider over the weekend, and audiences mostly stayed away. The film earned $3.9 million on 2,300 screens.

Maybe we don’t want to be reminded of a time when SNL delivered smart, irreverent comedy without an agenda. For longtime fans, that’s a jagged little pill to swallow.

At any rate, "Saturday Night" is notable for at least one reason. After decades of box-office flops based on SNL characters, this is the first bomb based on the show itself.

Jerry Seinfeld walks back statement that the 'extreme left' is killing comedy, amends other claims in surprising interview



Jerry Seinfeld walked back a statement he made earlier this year that the "extreme left" is killing comedy — and the iconic funnyman also amended other words of his in a surprising interview that aired Tuesday.

During Tom Papa’s "Breaking Bread" podcast, the host noted that Seinfeld recently "made a lot of news" about what comedians can and can't say, then asked Seinfeld what he believes people got right and wrong about his pronouncements.

'So I don’t think, as I said, the extreme left has done anything to inhibit the art of comedy. I'm taking that back now, officially.'

"Here's the thing that I got wrong," Seinfeld began. "I did not know that people care what comedians say. That literally came as news to me. Who the hell cares about what a comedian thinks about anything?"

He continued, "So there were two things that I have to say I regret saying and that I have to take back."

"One of them I didn't say, but people think I did. ... I said I don't play colleges because the kids are too PC and you can't do comedy for them," Seinfeld noted. "Not true. First of all, I never said it, but if you think I said it, it’s not true. I play colleges all the time. I have no problem with kids, performing for them. In fact, I was just at the University of Indiana, Kentucky, we did [the University of Texas]. I mean, I do colleges all the time, so that perception that I don't play colleges — wrong."

Actually Seinfeld said in a 2015 ESPN interview that “I don’t play colleges, but I hear a lot of people tell me, ‘Don’t go near colleges, they’re so PC.’" Perhaps Seinfeld's views on playing colleges changed over the last few years, but the "they're so PC" statement indeed appears to be in reference to what others said to him, not what he said himself.

Further in the "Breaking Bread" podcast, Seinfeld noted his second "regret," saying it was in reference to "an interview with the New Yorker, and I said that the extreme left has suppressed the art of comedy. I did say that. That’s not true. It’s not true. ... If you're Lindsey Vonn, if you’re a champion skier, you can put the gates anywhere you want on the mountain; she's gonna make the gate. That's comedy. Whatever the culture is, we make the gate. You don’t make the gate, you’re out of the game. The game is, 'Where is the gate? How do I make the gate and get down the hill in the way I want to?'"

Seinfeld continued: "So does culture change, and are there things I used to say that I can’t say that everybody's always moving [acceptability standards that apply to them]? Yeah, but that’s the biggest, easiest target. ... 'You can’t say certain words ... whatever they are ... about groups.' So what? The accuracy of your observation has to be 100 times finer than that to just be a comedian. … So I don’t think, as I said, the extreme left has done anything to inhibit the art of comedy. I'm taking that back now, officially. They have not. Do you like it? Maybe, maybe not. It's not my business to like or not like where the culture is at; it's my business to make the gate, to stay with my skiing analogy. You make the gate, or you're out."

Later in the conversation, Seinfeld brought up another statement of his from earlier this year that he misses "dominant masculinity" in culture.

"Which is probably not the greatest phrase," Seinfeld confessed to Papa. "What I was really saying is that I miss big personalities. That's what I miss." He referred to figures such as Muhammad Ali, Sean Connery, and Howard Cosell, then noted, "These were all the people I wanted to be like as a kid. ... I wanted to have that kind of authority and style. It was really a style thing; everyone conforms more to not offend. I miss George C. Scott. I miss these gigantic personalities ... just 'cause I thought it was a great flavor in my youth ... and that made a headline the next day."

What led to Seinfeld's reversals?

It's not clear what led Seinfeld to walk back his statements; he's certainly more than powerful and wealthy enough to eschew outside pressure to amend his views.

But interestingly, Julia Louis-Dreyfus — Seinfeld's co-star on the sitcom that used his surname and ruled television for much of the 1990s — made headlines herself after appearing to take issue with Seinfeld's anti-PC stance.

The New York Times in early June published an interview with Louis-Dreyfus, and the paper told her that "your former co-star Jerry Seinfeld recently made news for talking about political correctness in comedy. I’m wondering, as a famous comedian yourself, what you think about that."

Dreyfus didn't mention Seinfeld by name, but she told the Times the following:

If you look back on comedy and drama both, let’s say 30 years ago, through the lens of today, you might find bits and pieces that don’t age well. And I think to have an antenna about sensitivities is not a bad thing. It doesn’t mean that all comedy goes out the window as a result. When I hear people starting to complain about political correctness — and I understand why people might push back on it — but to me that’s a red flag, because it sometimes means something else. I believe being aware of certain sensitivities is not a bad thing. I don’t know how else to say it.

She didn't clarify what that "something else" is, nor did the Times follow up with a question regarding what "something else" might be.

Anything else?

Seinfeld has been quite active on the sociopolitical front over the last year.

During a May interview with Bari Weiss during which Seinfeld made the "dominant masculinity" statement, he also addressed anti-Israel sentiment that fueled college campus protests — and how protesters have even targeted him. Earlier in May, some Duke University graduates walked out of Seinfeld's commencement address.

“It’s so dumb. It's so dumb," he said. "In fact, when we get protesters occasionally, I love to say to the audience, ‘You know, I love that these young people, they’re trying to get engaged with politics ... we have to just correct their aim a little bit."

When Weiss brought up seeing video of protesters calling Seinfeld "Nazi scum" and being shocked when he smiled back and waved, Seinfeld told her, "It's so silly. They want to express this sincere, intense rage, but again, a little off target ... so that’s, to me, comedic."

Also, at one point, when Weiss asked Seinfeld about his trip to Israel after the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack, the comedian in a rare moment had to fight really hard to hold back tears after he called his visit the "most powerful experience of my life."

Seinfeld also took on anti-Israel hecklers at a number of his shows earlier this year.

You can check out Seinfeld's relevant words in the "Breaking Bread" podcast below:

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Jerry Seinfeld torches even more anti-Israel hecklers, telling them they 'just gave more money to a Jew'



Jerry Seinfeld torched a group of anti-Israel hecklers at his show Saturday night in Melbourne, Australia — the second time the iconic comedian has done so in the space of a week.

Toward the end of Seinfeld's set, the pro-Palestinian protesters began shouting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” Variety reported. The well-known chant is an endorsement of the destruction of Israel.

'We’re in the same business. Our business is to get people to see things the way we see it. The problem is, you’re in the wrong place!'

Unfortunately for the hecklers, they didn't seem to know that Seinfeld has a knack for putting such individuals in their place.

“Oh, you’re back! They’re back! The protesters are back! I missed you!” the comedian retorted, as the audience began booing the hecklers.

"Oh, you're not doing well. It's so hard for you," he continued before trying to talk some sense into them. "Listen, you and I are in the same business. We’re in the same business. Our business is to get people to see things the way we see it. The problem is, you’re in the wrong place! Do you hear how well I’m doing? This is what you want! You want to do well like I am. Look at the people here to hear me ... look at what happened to you."

Police escorted the protesters out of Rod Laver Arena, the Daily Mail said.

Seinfeld went on to explain that if he were to try to perform his "little comedy show" at a rugby game, "I would get that same reaction. I would get kicked out on my ass because that's not where I belong."

He added, "I think you need to go back and tell whoever's running your organization: 'We just gave more money to a Jew.' That cannot be a good plan for you. That's not what you want ... you gotta come up with a better plan."

You can view Seinfeld's takedown here.

The scene was much the same in Sydney last Sunday when a heckler dialed up the same "from the river to the sea" chant while Seinfeld was on stage — and of course, he demolished the pro-Palestinian protester.

"Yes! We have a genius, ladies and gentlemen. He's solved the Middle East! He's solved it!" Seinfeld mocked.

"It's the Jewish comedians, that's who we have to get. They're the ones who are doing everything!" he continued. "Yeah, go ahead, keep going! They're going to start punching you in about three seconds, so I would try and get all of your genius out so we can all learn from you."

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WATCH: Jerry Seinfeld brilliantly shames woke heckler as the crowd roars



Even after 40 years of doing stand-up comedy, “You never really knew [Jerry Seinfeld’s] political beliefs,” says Dave Rubin.

However, that has since changed. After Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel last October, Jerry, who’s Jewish himself, traveled to Israel and “basically said ‘Jews have a right to defend themselves’” — a statement that has made him “public enemy number one for all these pro-Hamas people.”

At a show in Sydney, Australia, last weekend, the comedian utterly destroyed a protester who started chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

“We have a genius, ladies and gentlemen. He’s solved the Middle East. ... It’s the Jewish comedians. That’s who we have to get!” he quipped.

The demonstrator continued his chant as security escorted him out, but Seinfeld wasn’t quite finished.

“They're going to start punching you in about three seconds, so I would try and get all of your genius out so we can all learn from you. It’s a comedy show you moron. Get out of here.”

When the chants didn’t stop, Seinfeld added, “You’re really influencing everyone here. We’re all on your side now because you’ve made your point so well. ... You’ve come to the right place for a political conversation.”

“Tomorrow we will read in the paper, ‘Middle East 100% solved thanks to man at the Qudos Arena stopping Jew comedian’ ... and everyone in the Middle East went, ‘Oh my God, let’s just get along.”’

“You have to go 20,000 miles from the problem and screw up a comedian – that is how you solve world issues,” he jested.

Dave, who’s long loved Jerry’s brilliance, applauds his willingness to call out the lunacy.

“Why are you going to a Jerry Seinfeld stand-up concert and doing that?” he asks rhetorically, adding that the woke protesters “are trying to ruin everything” because “they think they own everything.”

To see Jerry Seinfeld put a pro-Palestine protester to absolute shame, watch the clip below.


Want more from Dave Rubin?

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Biden Fundraiser with Jimmy Kimmel & Hollywood Elite Ends in Disaster

Biden Fundraiser with Jimmy Kimmel & Hollywood Elite Ends in Disaster

Jerry Seinfeld fires back perfect response when anti-Israel protester interrupts show: 'He's solved the Middle East!'



Comedian Jerry Seinfeld knows how to handle hecklers.

While performing a show in Sydney over the weekend, an audience member began heckling the comedy legend with the pro-Hamas slogan, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."

'Tomorrow we'll read in the paper: 'Middle East 100% solved thanks to man at the Qudos Arena stopping Jew comedian.''

Video of the incident shows the man standing up and aggressively motioning toward Seinfeld as he screamed his protests, which included an accusation that Seinfeld supports a "terrorist state," apparently a reference to Israel, according to the Sydney Morning-Herald.

But instead of letting the pro-Palestinian protester derail his show, Seinfeld leaned into the moment and roasted the man before security escorted him from the venue.

"Yes! We have a genius, ladies and gentlemen. He's solved the Middle East! He's solved it!" Seinfeld mocked.

"It's the Jewish comedians, that's who we have to get. They're the ones who are doing everything!" he continued. "Yeah, go ahead, keep going! They're going to start punching you in about three seconds, so I would try and get all of your genius out so we can all learn from you."

When security finally reached the protester, the massive crowd at the Qudos Bank Arena erupted in cheers. The arena holds more than 20,000 people.

"It's a comedy show, you moron! Get out of here," Seinfeld said.

But the jeers and opposition didn't stop the protester, who continued screaming at Seinfeld as he was escorted out of the show. His complaints, however, only gave Seinfeld more ammunition.

"You're really influencing everyone here! We're all on your side now because you have made your point so well. And in the right venue — you've come to the right place for a political conversation," Seinfeld mocked.

"Tomorrow we'll read in the paper: 'Middle East 100% solved thanks to man at the Qudos Arena stopping Jew comedian — they stopped him and everyone in the Middle East went, 'Oh my God let's just get along,''" he continued.

This is at least the third time that Seinfeld has been targeted in recent weeks.

Last month, a pro-Palestinian heckler interrupted one of Seinfeld's shows in Virginia. That incident came after anti-Israel students at Duke University interrupted their own commencement ceremony — at which Seinfeld was the commencement speaker — to virtue-signal their opposition to Israel.

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'Seinfeld' co-star on Jerry's real-life stance against political correctness: 'That’s a red flag'



Jerry Seinfeld's stance against political correctness is well-known. Only a few months back, he told the New Yorker in an interview that PC and the "extreme left" ruined comedic television: "It used to be, you would go home at the end of the day, most people would go, 'Oh, 'Cheers' is on. Oh, 'M*A*S*H' is on. Oh, 'Mary Tyler Moore' is on. 'All in the Family' is on.' You just expected, 'There’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.' Well, guess what — where is it?"

Seinfeld added to the magazine, "This is the result of the extreme left and PC crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people."

'My feeling about all of it is that political correctness, insofar as it equates to tolerance, is obviously fantastic.'

Well, Julia Louis-Dreyfus — Seinfeld's co-star on the sitcom that used his surname and ruled television for much of the 1990s — appeared to take issue with Seinfeld's anti-PC stance.

The New York Times recently interviewed Louis-Dreyfus, and the paper told her that "your former co-star Jerry Seinfeld recently made news for talking about political correctness in comedy. I’m wondering, as a famous comedian yourself, what you think about that."

Dreyfus didn't mention Seinfeld by name, but she told the Times the following:

If you look back on comedy and drama both, let’s say 30 years ago, through the lens of today, you might find bits and pieces that don’t age well. And I think to have an antenna about sensitivities is not a bad thing. It doesn’t mean that all comedy goes out the window as a result. When I hear people starting to complain about political correctness — and I understand why people might push back on it — but to me that’s a red flag, because it sometimes means something else. I believe being aware of certain sensitivities is not a bad thing. I don’t know how else to say it.

She didn't clarify what that "something else" is, nor did the Times follow up with a question regarding what "something else" might be.

But the interview continued 11 days later, and Louis-Dreyfus added that "my feeling about all of it is that political correctness, insofar as it equates to tolerance, is obviously fantastic. And of course I reserve the right to boo anyone who says anything that offends me, while also respecting their right to free speech, right?"

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‘Unfrosted’ Transports Viewers From 2024 Politics To The Cereal Aisles Of A Simpler America

[rebelmouse-proxy-image https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Screenshot-2024-06-05-at-12.09.26 PM-1200x675.png crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Screenshot-2024-06-05-at-12.09.26%5Cu202fPM-1200x675.png%22%7D" expand=1]The 'Unfrosted' movie provides a wonderful, funny 90-minute escape from the political woes of today's society.

Jerry Seinfeld says he misses 'dominant masculinity' in culture



Jerry Seinfeld said he misses "dominant masculinity" in culture.

During a recent interview with independent journalist Bari Weiss, the iconic comedian discussed the early 1960s during which his movie "Unfrosted" is set — and during which he grew up — and Seinfeld said he's noticed that "an agreed upon hierarchy" has "absolutely vaporized" in the present day.

'I miss a dominant masculinity. Yeah, I get the 'toxic' — thank you, thank you — but still, I like a real man.'

"I think that is why people lean on the horn and drive in the crazy way that they drive because we have no sense of hierarchy," Seinfeld noted, adding that "as humans, we don't really feel comfortable like that, so that is part of what I think is — if you want to talk about nostalgia — that's part of what makes that moment attractive looking back."

He added that "as a man — can I say that? — I've always wanted to be a real man; I never made it. But I really thought when I was in that era — again it was JFK, it was Muhammad Ali, it was Sean Connery, Howard Cosell, you can go all the way down there, 'that's a real man. I wanna be like that someday.'"

Seinfeld also said, "I miss a dominant masculinity. Yeah, I get the 'toxic' — thank you, thank you — but still, I like a real man."

Anything else?

Elsewhere during the interview, Seinfeld addressed anti-Israel sentiment that's fueled college campus protests this spring — and how protesters have even targeted him. Earlier this month, some Duke University graduates walked out of Seinfeld's commencement address.

“It’s so dumb. It's so dumb," he said. "In fact, when we get protesters occasionally, I love to say to the audience, ‘You know, I love that these young people, they’re trying to get engaged with politics ... we have to just correct their aim a little bit."

When Weiss brought up seeing video of protesters calling Seinfeld "Nazi scum" and being shocked when he smiled back and waved, Seinfeld told her, "It's so silly. They want to express this sincere, intense rage, but again, a little off target ... so that’s, to me, comedic."

Also, at one point, when Weiss asked Seinfeld about his trip to Israel after the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack, the comedian in a rare moment had to fight really hard to hold back tears after he called his visit the "most powerful experience of my life."

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Blaze News original: 'Wokeness has woken people up': Comedy club owner Mark Breslin once witnessed a judge rule that a woman was fat

Blaze News original: 'Wokeness has woken people up': Comedy club owner Mark Breslin once witnessed a judge rule that a woman was fat



Since 1978, Yuk Yuk's comedy club has been the premiere location to see uncensored acts. Now, as likely the world's longest-running comedy club owner, Mark Breslin has weathered decades of talent, cancelation attempts, and even a judge calling a woman fat.

At his clubs, whether its clean acts like Jerry Seinfeld, or not-so-clean acts like Louis C.K., no one is censored.

"I was friends with Sam Kinison, and I was very good friends with Seinfeld, and people said, 'How could you be friends with both of them?' I don't feel I have to choose between one kind of comedy and another," Breslin explained. "I embrace it all as long as it's funny."

The funny rule has worked for Breslin his entire career, and, for 48 years, his clubs have garnered the audience that expects no censorship. Breslin has never bent the knee to activists, and "anybody who's a social justice warrior is probably not going to show up at the club," he said. "They're probably not going to show up at any comedy club for that matter," he added.

"We have this history of pushing buttons and doing controversial things. We brought in Louis C.K. after his media meltdown, we used to bring in Sam Kinison, Andrew Dice Clay," he listed.

Breslin's story certainly checks out, and his club has rejected the notion that there was ever a time when woke comedy or political correctness was popular in the comedy scene.

On the Yuk Yuk's history page, the franchise said that not even in 1976 was anyone taking offense to jokes about ethnicity or lifestyle. Everyone had a voice in an equally offending environment, with no looming political correctness catching the tongue of comedians or patrons.

The latter has mostly changed, of course, with social hierarchy or competitive oppression serving as the backdrop for nearly every mainstream public discussion.

Breslin certainly remembers some of his first battles, though, and how the paradigm has shifted in terms of what can and cannot be uttered, according to the establishment.

'There's some lines that you can't cross. The flash point used to be sex, but now the flash point is race, and it's very difficult to talk about race because everybody's organized.'

Different mob, same story

Breslin said while freedom of expression has always been in the company's DNA, he noted how different groups have come after him at different times.

"What's interesting, I think, is that the enemies of speech on stage have changed over the years. When we first started, the big issue was we were using four-letter words on a public stage. Now, it isn't that shocking, and, yet in 1978, we started to get a lot of criticism and hassles from church groups," he recalled.

"The church was very powerful in the '70s and into the '80s, and they would complain or they would picket, and they wouldn't like what we were saying because we were encouraging young people to f***, and you don't want to encourage young people to f*** because who knows where that would lead. That might lead to drugs! So, it's always been kind of a libertarian ethos underpinning the comedy."

While not every comic takes advantage of a freedom-oriented environment, some clubs will not provide that protection for its comedians.

"It's unfortunate," Breslin continued. "It's not like every single person in the audience gets up and walks out, it's more like a dozen people didn't like an abortion joke. But [the club] won't rehire the comic, which is ridiculous."

At Yuk Yuk's, Breslin said if anyone does come to management to complain — he assured that very few do — the person is told that the club doesn't censor people but is offered some tickets to another show.

"We would never stop the comic for doing [offensive comedy], we would only stop a comic if he wasn't funny. That's what is important: They have to be funny."

That funny rule has never been the case for television networks, Breslin said. When asked about the divide between networks like Comedy Central, or Canada's CBC and Comedy Channel, he said executives have always yearned for a Seinfeld-like routine.

"HBO was the first company that started to actually put specials for comics on-air, and if you take a look at who they used, they used very smart, bright, clean comics that were not particularly offensive," he remembered.

"What they were looking for was if not Jerry Seinfeld, anybody who's like Jerry Seinfeld. They would really like that, and I don't mean to suggest that this stuff is junk because a lot of it was fairly political."

Like the revolving door of activist groups, topics too have come and gone in terms of what is taboo. Waves of censorship throughout history, and the aforementioned history of Yuk Yuk's, proves that different eras come with different faux pas.

"There's some lines that you can't cross. The flash point used to be sex, but now the flash point is race, and it's very difficult to talk about race because everybody's organized, and all you have to do, if you're a network executive, is have the intimation of racism in your hire, and that's very hard to defend."

"At a club level, who cares?" Breslin clarified. "It just doesn't matter to me what people think, all I care about is my audience."

At this point Breslin took a moment to provide a reminder: "For every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction."

"All this wokeness has woken up people who don't like the wokeness. You'll find there's a lot of comics out there now who really want to push the envelope against wokeism even if they don't particularly believe in those topics, just because they can't stand the idea of having their freedom limited."

Being sure to add that the freedom to make comedy is paramount, Breslin remembered that his club wasn't the first to put comics on stage. It was, however, the first club that didn't censor comics or implement a dress code.

"We were the first people to ever do it without a dress code, without a language code, without a content code ... and we actually kind of got excited when people would storm out because it meant, well, censorship is a form of relevance."

'The judge looked at the woman and said, 'But you are fat,' and the case was thrown out. It was sometime in the '80s.'


Topical controversy

Breslin was captured on video outside of his club in Toronto in early February 2024 receiving a police escort in order to enter the building through the back door. The entrance was blocked by pro-Palestinian protesters who were trying to prevent Breslin, who is Jewish, from entering.

As he made his way through the crowd, a woman appeared to try to stop him from entering by putting her arm out.

"She was grabbing my arm like she was trying to rip my clothes off," Breslin told the Toronto Sun. "I felt like I was the rock star I always wanted to be."

The club owner added that he didn't know who to complain about because all of the protesters were masked.

A woman claiming to be the person in question took offense to Breslin's remarks and said in a post on X that the joke constituted sexual harassment.

"The owner of Yuk Yuk's are sexually harassing me when they falsely accuse me of grabbing him & trying to rip his clothes while he boasts he felt like a rockstar," she wrote.

In the end, the night was still a success in front of a packed audience.

Too fat to laugh

The threat of hate speech laws are a real worry in Canada, but Breslin noted there is a provision for comedy under the latest Canadian hate speech legislation. But the entrepreneur didn't think legislation was the real reason the government hasn't been busting down doors to arrest comedians.

"None of this is for moral reasons, it's for practical reasons. They'd be dragging people into court every other day! It's hard to take somebody to court, it's effort, it's money. You have to really be a true believer to be able to do that."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, that has actually happened.

Breslin recalled that one woman took Yuk Yuk's to court because a comedian called her fat.

"He called her fat, and she said that he can't do that, so it actually went to court."

Then, straight out of a Leslie Nielsen comedy, the judge actually rendered an unexpected verdict in the case.

"The judge looked at the woman and said, 'But you are fat,' and the case was thrown out. It was sometime in the '80s."

I am so honoured and humbled today to interview my idol, my mentor and I'm proud to say; my friend Mark Breslin in his Toronto, Ontario Yuk Yuk's office. Stay tuned!!!!
— (@)

Above being edgy, political, or getting a TV show, what do comedians want?

"I think people want to sell lots of seats in a big theater," Breslin theorized.

"Sitcoms are basically dead. Things have really changed, so I think that the notion of a massive billionaire comic is maybe one that's in the past. Maybe Seinfeld and Kevin Hart are the last two of their kind."

What's more important now is having a strong fan base, he explained. A big TikTok or Instagram following based off of short clips doesn't work on stage, he added.

"I can't think of anybody who's a TikTok star who's actually made a dent in real comedy ... but comics are making a good living selling out 2,000 seats in whatever city they go to. They may not have more fans than those 2,000 people, but those 2,000 people are rabid fans and want to see what they're doing and will do anything to see what they're doing."

Having a fan base that is willing to pay a babysitter, drive downtown, and pay the cover charge while buying drinks, is worth far more than any social media clout, Breslin detailed. He added that anything under a minute doesn't translate to a live stage, and he's seen it fail.

With more than 20 clubs across the country, Breslin said his clubs are an extension of his personality. He acts the same way with his family at the dinner table as he does with his patrons: open and transparent.

In an effort to be consistent with that transparency, Breslin admitted that he doesn't think Chris Farley is funny.

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