Idle continued on to address another fabulously wealthy and perpetually platformed comedy crybaby, Bill Maher, whose war on naysayers started in 1993 with his first talk show, Politically Incorrect. Idle challenged Maher’s apparent assumption that anyone who doesn’t think he’s funny must be a cancel culture snowflake, saying, “I didn’t like it when Bill Maher complains about the audience for not laughing, they’re telling you they don’t find it funny. You shouldn’t moan about the audience. There’s nothing wrong with the audience. If they don’t laugh at your jokes, there’s something wrong with your joke. And so… I’m not terribly sympathetic to that sort of attitude, to be honest.”
The Monty Python member had another topical jab for the owner of Twitter, likening Musk’s failed “Twitter Blue” campaign to “buying a petting zoo and then charging the animals.”
It’s reassuring to hear a comedian with as much wisdom and experience as Idle speak so directly about the absurdity of the “censorship” discussion as it relates to immensely wealthy and popular comedians complaining about how some audiences are having a negative reaction to their material. Neither Chappelle, nor Maher, nor Cleese are being censored when people criticize the points of view that they openly express to millions of viewers. Actual censorship is when Russian satirists are jailed for mocking a Kremlin-favored local politician, not when some Cracked writer says that Bill Maher hasn’t been funny since 2005.