Sometimes Being Edgy Doesn't Pay

So it was yesterday that a group of vtubers decided that they would call themselves a particular slur that has been used against those who have either a mental disability or a neurological disability for the past 20 or 30 years or so, and one of their members like’s to identify as a Nazi.

Now everyone feels like they should be edgy for whatever reason whether it’s to get clout or to upset anyone who is too “sensitive” and wants to complain about cancel culture. Now there was a time when message boards and chatrooms were starting to become all the rage. It was a time before there was a Twitter or a Facebook. Though while cancel culture seems like a new phenomena now but back in the late 80’s and early 90’s it worked about the same as it does now, except now it’s a bit more in real time. There was a comedian who was known for his edgy and dark humor but got dropped when his jokes went a little too far. For those that know: I’m talking about Sam Kinison. It’s a cautionary tale for anyone that wants to claim that they’re edgy and maybe realize that..well being edgy sometimes isn’t going to pay. It didn’t for Sam Kinison. But I’ll get to that.

For those who were too young to know or weren’t born yet, Sam Kinison was considered a shock comedian. His standup often included talking about religion, dating and women, with some content a lot of people would label as offensive and misogynic. Though when he was alive, people said the exact same thing about him. In the thirty some odd years since his death, nothing has changed.

Sam Kinison was the father of a Pentecostal preacher and was someone who went into the business as well. He fell from grace so to speak when his first wife divorced him after finding out that his wife was cheating on him. One day, he found out who she was cheating on him with and went to his apartment with a gun and threatened the guy to give Sam everything that his wife had given him. That marked the end of his career as a minister. For Pentecostals, much like for Catholics, getting a divorce is looked down upon though for Pentecostals it’s worse if you’re a minister.

Now Kinison’s sense of humor was often dark and he was someone who liked to party a lot. Which wasn’t uncommon in the 80’s. Between the 60s, 70s, 80s, and early 90s everyone and their mother liked to party and party hard. It’s why the 27 club became a thing (Celebrities who died before they were 27 usually as a result of doing hard drugs or suicide). His partying went a little too far when his brother passed away and he couldn’t cope with his loss, so like anyone in that time period he turned to hard drugs and his work in comedy.

During this time his comedy started to go off the deep end and became a lot more meanspirited, it was when he started to be called a misogynic by many women’s groups and the media. There was no defending of his actions or his comedy as many of his friends who had toured with him would all agree that what he said was misogynic. Which can be established in the Dark Side of Comedy episode that centered around him and his contrversial style. It was during this time that the AIDS pandemic he decided to try and rile up the gay community. Though one would say that he succeeded but his shows started to have people actively protesting his shows for his comments on black people, women and the gay community again during a time where there was no social media.

Now if this happened today, Sam of course would have been cancelled. Many people would try to claim that he has the right to say what he wants because of freedom of speech. However, freedom of speech has limitations. Starting with; it only applies to the government.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Which comes from here: https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1

Now that being said, there are limitations to freedom of speech such as obscenity is not protected and there’s a test to determine that.

(a) whether the “average person applying contemporary community standards” would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; (b) whether the work depicts or describes in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

Child pornography, images depicting torture, murder, rape or mutilation are some of the types of materials the courts consider pornographic. Child pornography is banned speech even when it does not meet the Miller test. The limits on obscene speech also apply to broadcasting. The FCC regulates broadcasting and sets obscenity guidelines broadcasters must follow.

Making threats against someone else isn’t protected as well. Now while you might have the right to say something it does not mean that someone else can’t criticize you. They actually have the right to do so, because their freedom of speech is not cancelled by your freedom of speech. They have the right to critcize you because Congress cannot make a law that would say that you can’t criticize someone.

Now the kicker with Sam Kinison is that his so called speech described women, blacks people, and the gay community were consider offensive or portrayed them in an offensive way, and for women did include sexual content and I would argue that there really is no artisitic value in that. If your free speech doesn’t meet the criteria in Miller v California then it’s not protected. Sorry to tell you that your shock humor that targets people with low hanging fruit isn’t protected. Thoughts and prayers?

But back to Sam Kinison, he was running into a lot of trouble. Not only were people protesting at his shows but things were taking a violent turn. People were sending him death threats, throwing acid at his tour bus, going to shows with weapons and this was in some of the most liberal states. I know what you’re thinking “well so much for being accepting.” And you would be wrong.

If Sam Kinison had a thought about cause and effect, he wouldn’t have said what he did and he wouldn’t have received death threats. It’s not that hard to think about the impact that you are going to have on the world around you. Okay. Maybe I don’t think it’s hard because I’m audhd and I’m ALWAYS thinking about how or what I said will affect someone. Because I put other people’s thought and feelings before my own.

Anyway. It’s not that Sam Kinison had thick skin between this going on and him getting banned by several record labels and groups. It was getting to him, but it had more to the fact that he was betrayed by his first wife, that he lost almost everyone that he ever loved including his father and his younger brother. He had a need to speak out and did so in an inappropriate way and the drugs and alcohol he was doing surely wasn’t helping at all. He ended up getting booed off the stage because he was cracking under the pressure. It wasn’t until his brother and manager showed him a tape of his work that Sam saw just how bad he had fallen and how fucked up he got and the threat of his brother and manager quitting which was got him to fix himself. He cleaned up his act and started to rehabilitate his career until his tragic death.

The main takeaway is that edgy comedy isnt’t something that’s going to make you millions or is going to be career saving. It’s a cry for help. Sooner or letter your so called thick skin is going to crumble much like Sam’s did and it didn’t take until he looked at his last performance and his own brother and manager walking out on him that he decided that he needed help. It didn’t really pay Sam Kinison in the end to be edgy and he learned his lesson.

It’s not going to help you to be edgy. Sooner or later you’re going to find your own thick skin crumbling.

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