We Didn't Talk About Nick Di Paolo's firing (comedian/radio host)

[lifelessheap]

It's too late for all that. Weve already set the precedent that you are going to get fired, joking or not.

Weve got people digging up peoples posts from 10 years ago to get them fired. It doesn't matter until it happens to someone you enjoy.

Maybe he can get a job at Fresno State? Speech is safe there.

 

[Possum Jenkins]

You're fucking kidding, right? LOL.

Man, you can't seem to get out of your adorable little "gotcha" wannabe intellectual rut. Ply your trade on somebody else until you level up.

Nick is obsessed with the downfall of the white man. That and evil liberals is almost all he ever talks about. Every day. Your instructions are to go notice that.

Di Paolo is an OG unhinged right-winger.

I remember first watching his Comedy Central stuff in the early 2000s and it was pretty hateful and racist back then. He was way ahead of the game. I can't even imagine the sort of stuff he's been saying since.

 

[Fawlty]

Di Paolo is an OG unhinged right-winger.

I remember first watching his Comedy Central stuff in the early 2000s and it was pretty hateful and racist back then. He was way ahead of the game. I can't even imagine the sort of stuff he's been saying since.

It's the same stuff, but a lot more of it, and a lot less of the Bill Burr-type incredulous suburban white guy stuff, which I think is pretty good, as long as it maintains the character of self-parody. That's how Burr has kept from slipping into Di Paolo territory- he's always quick to make fun of himself for being kind of stupid. Burr has all the same anxieties Di Paolo has I think (his cartoon F is For Family reveals his Archie Bunker side), but he understands that it's something to make fun of. Di Paolo, not so much.

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

Here's the Tweet that got comic Nick Di Paolo fired from his show on Sirius XM last week:

"Dear future school shooters, please confine yourself to coll. campuses, specifically faculty lounges at Berkeley, Fresno State etc."



So this one got deleted fairly quickly, and Nick just up and disappeared from Sirius XM over last weekend. Nick is verging on openly racist and obsessed with pushing right wing politics. He's also a very talented comic whose voice is underrepresented on stage.

This was a tough one for me because that's a really fucked up thing to say, and it does border on being an actual call for violence. In the end though, it was a joke. A failed, shitty, inappropriate (even among the inappropriate) joke. I see the joke in there (faculty lounges), but you have to look pretty hard to find it. I understand how it might seem like a hateful call to violence to a lot of people.

Patrice O'Neal had a semi-famous old interview where he argued that comics should get the benefit of the doubt. Funny and unfunny come from the same place, he said. And it's the audience who lets you know if it succeeded. We should defend the attempt to be funny. Which, in Nick's case, would mean that we fuck him up for making a shit joke that was both unfunny and over the top offensive, which is the worst way to fail- but we don't ostracize him.

We don't need to waste any time on the "they can hire/fire who they want" stuff. We know that. We all know that. Should we defend Di Paolo's attempt at the joke, or should we punish him up for it, or do you disagree that it even qualifies as a joke?

That's a shitty thing to say.

In general I think people should not be fired from their jobs for things they say and do outside of their jobs. This includes the liberal lady who called Barbara Bush a racist and the conservative guy fired from the Atlantic last week. However, this is a borderline call to actual violence against specific people. So, never heard of this guy, and won't lose sleep over him losing a job.

 

[Possum Jenkins]

It's the same stuff, but a lot more of it, and a lot less of the Bill Burr-type incredulous suburban white guy stuff, which I think is pretty good, as long as it maintains the character of self-parody. That's how Burr has kept from slipping into Di Paolo territory- he's always quick to make fun of himself for being kind of stupid. Burr has all the same anxieties Di Paolo has I think (his cartoon F is For Family reveals his Archie Bunker side), but he understands that it's something to make fun of. Di Paolo, not so much.

Yeah, it seems like Burr, Di Paolo and the rest of the New York Opie and Anthony crew got that white male anxiety thing going. They just expressed it in different ways. Burr is more self-aware, gentler, and just funnier, but it seems like Di Paolo's stuff came from a darker place.

 

[BrotherClaudio]

How many of the shooters went to college?

Are you lost?

Do you know why he was fired? Once you figure that out, get back to me

You click bait cuck

 

[usmctanker242]

I thought South Park pretty much already figured this crap out.

http://southpark.cc.com/clips/153289/a-misunderstanding

It takes 22.3 years until a tragedy is funny. DiPaolo just couldn't wait the appropriate amount of time before he was allowed to make this kind of joke.

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

Here's the Tweet that got comic Nick Di Paolo fired from his show on Sirius XM last week:

"Dear future school shooters, please confine yourself to coll. campuses, specifically faculty lounges at Berkeley, Fresno State etc."



So this one got deleted fairly quickly, and Nick just up and disappeared from Sirius XM over last weekend. Nick is verging on openly racist and obsessed with pushing right wing politics. He's also a very talented comic whose voice is underrepresented on stage.

This was a tough one for me because that's a really fucked up thing to say, and it does border on being an actual call for violence. In the end though, it was a joke. A failed, shitty, inappropriate (even among the inappropriate) joke. I see the joke in there (faculty lounges), but you have to look pretty hard to find it. I understand how it might seem like a hateful call to violence to a lot of people.

Patrice O'Neal had a semi-famous old interview where he argued that comics should get the benefit of the doubt. Funny and unfunny come from the same place, he said. And it's the audience who lets you know if it succeeded. We should defend the attempt to be funny. Which, in Nick's case, would mean that we fuck him up for making a shit joke that was both unfunny and over the top offensive, which is the worst way to fail- but we don't ostracize him.

We don't need to waste any time on the "they can hire/fire who they want" stuff. We know that. We all know that. Should we defend Di Paolo's attempt at the joke, or should we punish him up for it, or do you disagree that it even qualifies as a joke?

what's the difference between that and this:

I support making it mandatory for everyone there to carry a gun. Also lock the doors, limit the water supply, and play Radiohead on a 3 song loop. We'll wait.

 

[AgonyandIrony]

Most jokes are better told on stage.

Twitter is full of people who are completely tone-deaf, and it makes sense. It's just text. You don't get the tone or the context. There isn't a set up. You just type something out that sounds one way in your head, and others might read it a completely different way. I see people getting riled up by "the evil leftists" who seem to be very transparent in their use of irony and satire, but people read it online and think it's real. I've seen it in the other direction as well.

If you're a comedian, your best bet is to avoid using twitter as a comedy stage. Dude lost his job because a tasteless joke that might have garnered a few chuckles in a comedy club on a Wednesday night came across as a call to violence in a text format.

I don't even have one for this reason. The shitty thing is a popping Twitter helps get asses in seats and I look like an idiot every time a booker asks me for my Twitter and I have to skirt around it.

I don't post any jokes on the internet really, it's so hard for people to get the context without the live aspect.

 

[Fawlty]

what's the difference between that and this:

Fundamentally, not much- it's in the delivery. I probably despise NRA propaganda as much as Di Paolo despises parts of the political left. That's why I defend Nick's attempt at making a morbid joke.

I make it a point to exaggerate the idea of everybody having guns in several different ways. But even if I had just said, tongue-in-cheek, that it should be mandatory to carry guns, that would have created a bigger distance from actual violent rhetoric than Di Paolo managed to do with his tweet. That shows what a piss-poor job he did (and he knows it).

But I can't agree with abandoning him over one completely whiffed joke that was probably written in anger.

 

[Falconkick]

That's fucked up. I just got off double yellows for a very similar joke.

To me, a joke is like art. It's purpose is to offend, and inspire. To provoke by challenging. And of course to entertain.

I don't buy the idea that it is a call to violence. That seems to me to be a disingenuous argument made by those who are offended.

This falls under censorship to me.

Many of us have seen the movie Trumbo. Perhaps those that have, can explain the difference between this, and the way Trumbo was blacklisted for having controversial political beliefs.

Agreed. I see so many more yellow cards on this site, and given the times we are living in with so many over sensitive people it is no surprise

 

[BassAckwards]

if he said that about a chirstian bible college, i'm sure liberals would be laughing

 

[Fawlty]

if he said that about a chirstian bible college, i'm sure liberals would be laughing

Late entry for stupidest post of the month.

 

[badascan]

The people the tweet addresses are by far the most offended, fragile, virtue signaling, quasi-autistic, loud mouths that attempting humor directed at them is like holding something over a blind midgets head then flipping them off...

 

[Fawlty]

The people the tweet addresses are by far the most offended, fragile, virtue signaling, quasi-autistic, loud mouths that attempting humor directed at them is like holding something over a blind midgets head then flipping them off...

You took such a big swing at it that you hit the back of your head twice.

 

[Deleted member 196663]

You're fucking kidding, right? LOL.

Man, you can't seem to get out of your adorable little "gotcha" wannabe intellectual rut. Ply your trade on somebody else until you level up.

Nick is obsessed with the downfall of the white man. That and evil liberals is almost all he ever talks about. Every day. Your instructions are to go notice that.

An infantile response to someone asking for evidence. Insane. Thought you had a bit more sense than that. You're letting fanaticism creep in.

 

[Fawlty]

An infantile response to someone asking for evidence. Insane. Thought you had a bit more sense than that. You're letting fanaticism creep in.

Hey, fuck off with that. You came in like I owed you something. The grownups who are talking itt are familiar enough with Nick Di Paolo that they don't take melodramatic offense at saying that he's almost openly racist. If you wouldn't have been such a limp prick, and asked like a person without an ax to grind, I would have responded differently. This crap is most of what you do in the WR, by the way. It's noticeable. It's not good. Again, go run your silly game on somebody else. I'm not interested.

 

[jrams]

What I'm suggesting is that due to the nature of comedy, comics should get cut extra slack as compared to just some guy making an insensitive comment.

Why? If it is clear that it isn't what they actually think and want, why shouldn't it be protected just as much? I don't think people should get extra protection for being a comedian. I just don't think these things should result in losing your job. It's an attempted joke, it failed, no reason to be punished at work for it. If their reason was he was causing people to dislike him and lose listeners, sure. Just being controversial is weak reasoning.

It's like the "hope I don't get AIDS" tweet that got that lady fired. The internet mob got outraged and got her fired before she even landed, completely irrelevant to the ability of her to do her job.

 

[spin]

But I can't agree with abandoning him over one completely whiffed joke that was probably written in anger.

i abandon him for his reaction

“Hey Guys, Yes it’s true, @SIRIUSXM fired me for a poorly worded tweet, that warranted suspension at best,” Di Paolo tweeted. “In my opinion, it’s a total overreaction on their part, but these are the times we live in. Don’t worry I will resurface soon. Thx for all your support!”


other misfired jokes could make case of being a victim of the times, but not so much this one. this is just playing victim.


what i loved about Patrice is he could admit fault and take responsibility.

 

[Deleted member 196663]

The joke is that faculty rather than students deserve to be shot. Before you say it, yes lol, that is not a good joke. You could put the right twist on that and have it come off like a joke. Still a shitty joke, but it would be more recognizable as a joke (this is probably why Nick says it was poorly worded).

You could talk about how "this coward was stalking the halls, killing innocent kids, one classroom to the next...AND HE WALKED RIGHT PAST THE FACULTY LOUNGE!! Seriously dude, you were RIGHT THERE!" I could laugh at something like that if it was phrased/delivered well.

Comedians love it when random people give them bro-tips on how to be more funny.