Katt Williams is speaking out about cancel culture in the comedy world.
“At the end of the day, there’s no cancel culture, cancellation doesn’t have its own culture,” Williams said in a viral interview reposted on Twitter.
He’s spoken out multiple times on various platforms, sharing his perspective on comedians evolving with the times.
During an interview on Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay, the hosts asked Williams about the current state of comedy in regards to cancel culture and people feeling like they can’t be their true selves on stage.
“Most people that are complaining about not having anything to say didn’t have anything to say in those years when they could say whatever they wanted to, they didn’t make it there either,” Williams responded.
Co-host Latham admitted he was surprised by his response.
“I don’t want to call somebody something that I shouldn’t call them when if I would have known that, I would have found something else to call them,” Williams told the hosts. “Nobody likes the speed limit but it’s there for a reason.”
A clip on Twitter of Williams sharing his perspective reached more than 1 million views in less than 24 hours.
“It’s done for the reasons it’s done for and it helped who it helped,” Williams said in the interview clip. “If all that’s going to happen is we have to be more sensitive in the way that we talk, isn’t that what we would want anyway.”
In the video clip, he went on to encourage comedians to be mindful of the words they use.
“Don’t call somebody this word when you know this affects all of these people, don’t use the r-word when you really mean people on the spectrum, don’t say this word instead of saying autistic, don’t say this word instead of saying little people,” Williams said. “If these are the confines that keep you from doing the craft that God put you to, then it probably ain’t for you.”
Of course folks have been weighing in on the conversation.
“Basically said my exact answer, its not real but if it was why does purposefully undermining groups of ppl for shock value you make or break your comedy quality, like you werent that funny to begin with if that was the case,” Twitter user @NAACPYOUNGBOY wrote.
“I like it. The people who whine about “Oh you can’t say anything anymore” shouldn’t be in comedy if that can’t put more consideration into other marginalized people’s feelings. Its called not being a jerk or a bigot and apologizing when u mess up,” Twitter user @Rage_Bloomer tweeted.
“Exactamente! For the first time ever EVERYONE, not just POC, are being held accountable for what they say; feel free to speak your mind, BUT be prepared to be held accountable,” Twitter user @DanaCortez posted.
While some people dont agree with cancel culture or consider it real, dictionaries have adopted definitions of the term over the years.
As defined by dictionary.com, cancel culture is “the popular practice of withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive. Cancel culture is generally discussed as being performed on social media in the form of group shaming.”
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