A Comedian Imitated Stephen Hawing's Electronic Voice At An Award Show And People Are Pissed

Classic lack of context from the Twitter trolls.  Comedian Stephen Fry steps up on stage, makes fun of Stephen Hawking’s computer voice and people freak the fuck out.  Once the fire starts it’s impossible to stop.  A person tells another person what happened and then the context gets even less and the anger rages even hotter.  It’s simple.  Hawking was there.  Hawking made a joke about being better looking than Fry and he fired back with an imitation of the voice.  Pretty sure that’s called busting balls.  It’s why Comedy Central roasts are so popular.  Stephen Hawking has a well documented sense of humor.  Whether or not you think Fry’s joke was a low blow is up to you.  But you can’t say it was inappropriate when it fit into the context of what was happening.  Everybody has the right to be offended but you don’t have to make it seem like everybody should be offended or their wrong.

Bill Burr was on a talk show recently and he touched on this issue and made a good point (which is like Bill Burr’s entire existence now.  Making good points amongst a land of bad points made by other people).  He was talking about how, when he does a bit that gets covered and picked apart on the news about it being racist or sexist or homophobic, the clip the news shows of the joke is followed by laughter from the crowd at the comedy club.  Why?  Because in the context of his bit, it’s funny and isn’t offensive.  News shows can’t just pluck portions of his bits in order to push a news story.  It’s lazy journalism and does a disservice to comedy.  Same thing with this Stephen Hawking thing.  People in the crowd laughed but all the headlines I read about the story were “ASS HOLE STEPHEN FRY MAKES FUN OF STEPHEN HAWKING’S MEDICAL CONDITION”  I mean not really.  Pump those brakes.

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I don’t think I proved a damn thing or even made a good point with this blog but it sure as shit sense made sense in my head.