Punchline
Heard any good jokes lately?
You know, I haven’t, but maybe that’s because I missed the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia. After all, some of America’s most famous comedians performed, like noted free speech advocates Dave Chappelle and Louis CK and Gabriel Iglesias and Bill Burr.
You mean those guys who hate being censored!
They’re the ones! And at Riyadh, they were permitted to make jokes about gays and women…but not so much about the Saudi government, or any mentions of religion. As one of the attendees said, “You had gay jokes, trans jokes, sex jokes, they're being really open about everything - aside from the government."
Did they get paid a lot?
Girl, you know they did, but probably because the contracts included their souls. As invited comedian Tim Dillon said (he was disinvited), “Mind your own beeswax. There’s a lot of beeswax in Saudi Arabia. It’s not my problem. They’re paying me to keep my mouth shut.” This was in reference to that country’s rich history of beeswax or, as others call it, human rights abuses.
The festival was, in fact, held on the seventh anniversary of the dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Yikes. But, also, it sounds like you’re being sarcastic. Do you even like these guys?
Oh man, I used to! The best comedians manage to do what my favorite writers have done – provide a clear glimpse into humanity, offer reflections I never realized. A good joke has as much surprising insight as the best prose.
But those comedians had lost me long ago for a variety of reasons, not least of which were their complaints about cancel culture and wokenism.
Wait, you’re cool with cancel culture?
Not really but, as far as I can tell, for a successful comedian being canceled largely means people on social media complaining about you for a few days, until they forget and move on to the next outrage. I know these people also get death threats but, brosef, this is America. The emu from those Liberty Mutual commercials probably gets death threats twice a week. We’re not a terribly rational people, is what I’m saying.
And anyway, for all their complaints about being canceled, these comedians are still wildly popular in this country. Our most canceled comics, Louis CK and Dave Chappelle, have won Grammys from 2021-2025 for Best Comedy Album. Chappelle hosted SNL last year. Stirring up controversy when you’ve reached their level is mere strategy, a seasonal look. Their opinions are outfits.
But they’ve said some pretty important things. Remember the Chappelle Show?
One of the things that has always drawn me to both comedians and crime fiction is the willingness to question power. In crime fiction, it can depict the fight of the individual against a prevailing system or, in psychological fiction, a wife against the confines of a marriage. In comedy, it can be the brave satire of foolish kings.
The Biden years saw an effort to embrace a widening vision of America, a ripple of redefinition in the country. We were changing what it is to be American beyond a simplistic white, middle-class viewpoint. Our country was more than a single shared experience. We were shown glimpses of what it is to be someone else, and found it disquieting.
And, predictably, thus comes the backlash of 2025, when diversity and history are villainized and shame is forgotten and, not coincidentally, the powerful have become nakedly relentless in their endless pursuit of more power.
It would be nice if those comedians could turn their talent and voices against an actual threat. But gluttony is a hell of a drug.
Will those comedians come around?
They could, but you’ll have to write them a bigger check.
As writers, there’s a lesson here. Most of us will never have the popularity or influence those comedians enjoy, simply because of the difference of our mediums. But 2025’s absence of shame won’t remain an admirable feature; historically, no matter how greedily they’re embraced, the acceptance of our worst impulses fades and is reviled. But it’s during these brief times of violent chaotic gluttony when contrary voices are remembered, because that’s when those voices are most necessary. This is the moment when what you’re writing will be remembered.
Don’t waste it, or you’ll risk becoming the eventual punchline of your own career.
EA
I’m hosting this event with Loyalty Books for my friend John Copenhaver and the wonderful anthology he edited, Crime Ink: Iconic (An Anthology of Crime Fiction Inspired by Famous Queer Icons). The details haven’t been announced yet, but it’s going to be an evening of readings from contributors to the anthology (Cheryl Head, Diana DiGangi) and allies (Alex Finlay, K.T. Nguyen, Sarah Pekkanen, Aggie Blum Thompson) paying tribute to LGBTQ writing pioneers, with an opening Q&A between John and Hannah Grieco. The event is being held by Loyalty Books, but will actually take place at nearby bar Jackie Lee’s on October 20 at 7 pm. Keep an eye on this page for more information!
It's giveaway time! This newsletter I’m giving away a copy of Crime Ink: Iconic (An Anthology of Crime Fiction Inspired by Famous Queer Icons). And the winner is:
Mar______tar20@gmail.COM
Congrats, and I'll send you an email with more information soon!
I’ll probably write/complain more about this soon but, as some of you know, crime fiction boutique publisher Down and Out Books recently shuttered. This sucks for a bunch of reasons, but it sucks personally for me because D&O published my first’ish novel The Unrepentant and two anthologies I co-edited, The Night of the Flood and The Swamp Killers (as well as other anthologies that featured my fiction and essays). I find myself in the position of having to figure out what to do with those books - the rights will return to me, and I’ll probably revisit and republish The Unrepentant, because I really loved that book and would like to keep it in print. The anthologies are a different matter - not that I didn’t love them, but they each involved a bunch of writers and my wonderful co-editor Sarah M. Chen and that complicates things. Do we republish them, or revisit them, or pull an ICE and disappear them? I’ve always thought The Night of the Flood, in particular, was remarkable, and deserved a wider audience. Anyway, more information coming soon.