“You can't joke about anything anymore! Comedy is dead because of PC culture!”

What You Say

Comedians still sell out arenas and stream specials — the 'you can't joke' claim is nostalgia, not economics. What changed is audience backlash to punching down at marginalized groups, which is market feedback, not government censorship. PEN America documents actual speech restrictions in state gag-order laws — those are Republican-led book bans and classroom speech limits, not liberal college kids on Twitter.