Comedian Stavros Halkias took aim at fellow standups, including Joe Rogan, over what he sees as manufactured outrage about “cancel culture” limiting their comedy, arguing the complaints amount to a “victim mentality” from people who simply refuse to write better jokes.
Halkias made the comments during an appearance on the New York Times podcast Popcast. The conversation turned pointed when the hosts asked Halkias about his standing among comedians who lean into right-wing podcast spaces.
Halkias, who has publicly criticized comedians for taking money to perform in Saudi Arabia, said the loudest complaints from comedians about restrictions on their material rang hollow.
“It’s so clear they were wrong,” Halkias said. “That’s the hardest part. It’s like guys even if that was true, like you can’t think of a different word? That’s another thing that pisses me off… If a lot of the people complaining were shi**y at standup, that’s the thing that was tough. It’s like dude, I know you haven’t tried hard to make this joke work. Try to make it work without it. Just for three months try to make it work without a slur.”
He continued, pushing back on the idea that comedians facing criticism for their jokes were being persecuted.
“Who cares if you couldn’t say, you’re not martyrs. Lenny Bruce actually went to jail for this. We want to pretend we have victims,” Halkias said. “It’s so funny cuz a lot of times it was so hypocritical because these are people who are like, ‘oh, that guy’s being a victim or whatever.’ It’s like that’s the biggest victim mentality of all time.”
He continued, “I can’t say a couple slurs and now it’s like, that’s the thing that that I didn’t get is like, as a comic, don’t you want to be good enough that you can take over, you can get away, because that is what how I saw it. No crutch.”
While Halkias did not name Rogan directly in that portion of the exchange, the discussion took place against the backdrop of Rogan’s frequent complaints on his own podcast about “cancel culture” and restrictions on comedic speech, a topic Halkias suggested has become a crutch for comedians who would rather blame outside forces than improve their material.
Halkias also discussed declining to perform at the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia, unlike peers such as Dave Chappelle, saying the event allowed the country to “culture wash” its human rights record regardless of the creative freedom performers were promised.
