Zócalo Public Square Presents: Has Political Correctness Really Killed Humor?

Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld say they won’t perform on college campuses because politically correct students are too easily offended. Monty Python’s John Cleese writes that oversensitivity is killing comedy and threatening free expression, and that “all comedy is critical” and involves judging other people. But how does that reconcile with the notion that political correctness is at heart a call for greater decency? Have we really gone too far? And what is the right balance between freedom of speech, be it humorous or not, and the need to acknowledge social diversity?

Performance artist/comedian and UCLA alum Kristina Wong, Skidmore College comedy scholar and author of All Joking Aside: American Humor and Its Discontents Beck Krefting, and UCLA grad and stand-up comedian Max Amini visit Zócalo to ask what—if anything—is funny anymore.

This event will be moderated by Carina Chocano, Contributing Writer, The New York Times Magazine.

Parking is $9 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall garage. Enter from Second St., just west of Grand Ave.