Comic David Cross Torches Comics Who ‘Bitch and Moan’ About Being Canceled For ‘Dumb Joke About Trans People’

Comedian David Cross took on comics who complain about “cancel culture” rather than listen to critics, singling out comics like Dave Chappelle and Bill Maher who joke about trans people — but without naming the comics.

Chappelle, Maher, and podcaster Joe Rogan have become lightning rods for their constant mockery and misgendering of trans people.

SiriusXM host and Salon interviewer Dean Obeidallah interviewed Cross for his Salon Talks interview series, and Cross slammed comics who refuse to consider the effect of some jokes — then told the story of an audience member who convinced him to stop doing a particular joke from his own set:

DAVID CROSS: All the comics bitch and moan about, you know, “they’re trying to cancel me for this joke I made.” It’s most of the time, it’s a nothing joke and it doesn’t matter. And now you are positioning yourself as this bullshit voice of “They’re not going to cancel me. You can’t silence me.” For what? Your dumb joke that about trans people? Who gives a shit? I mean, is it that important to you? Just move on and not hurt, you know, hundreds of thousands of people.

DEAN OBEIDALLAH: Have you ever had people like your own fans come up after show to you and say, like this joke about that and they read something into it that you haven’t thought about and they’re like, you know, that hurt me or that troubled me?

DAVID CROSS: Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. It was something where it was like the talking about the. Phrase the N-word or something. And this woman was Black. She explained why that upset her, and I explained why I thought it was I was kind of defending it and the idea behind it. And we talked for a while. And then ultimately, and this really doesn’t happen that often, but she, I saw her side to it after this conversation. Again, it was a, it was a longer conversation. We went back and forth and at the and I was like, okay. And it doesn’t it doesn’t hurt me. Doesn’t affect me in any way to not do that line? I do have a line where I’ll go, I don’t care. You’re being oversensitive and you’re seeing this thing in it that does not exist. I’ve made my intent clear. And that’s, that’s on you. So I do have my line. But this one didn’t come close to that. We had this long discussion. I was like, okay, I understand. I get it. I get it now. That’s, that doesn’t happen all the time, but it’s like. Now that I have that information and I can see your point of view, why would I continue to do it just to be some hero of free speech?

Watch above via Salon Talks.