That’s pro-transgender, pro-fetus, and pro-parties.’ But I haven’t done it in a while.” Crohn, who has appeared on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing.”

“I had a joke in before where I said, ‘Do you think transgender fetuses should get angry at gender-reveal parties?’” says Mr. They were protesting Dave Chappelle’s latest comedy special, “The Closer,” for its subject matter about transgender people. On the same day, nearly 3,000 miles away, a small group of Netflix employees staged a high-profile walkout at the streaming service’s Los Angeles headquarters. Nonetheless, in an interview prior to the show, he says comedians are suddenly hyperaware of getting in trouble for saying the wrong thing. Well, apart from an oceanic joke about cuttlefish having sex, which is probably a first in the annals of comedy. Crohn’s subject matter is fairly innocuous. “The flight attendant comes up to me, and she’s like, ‘Got any food?’” “Imagine the Maury Povich show at 31,000 feet,” riffs the comedian. Crohn forms a wishbone with his arms – elbows lifted high and hands pressed together – as he holds the microphone. It’s Comedy Tuesday at Night Shift Brewing in Everett, Massachusetts.

Stand-up comic Dan Crohn is telling a joke about the first time he flew Spirit Airlines. “I think it is a healthy moment. I think we really need to figure out – and I don’t know that we really will – but I think it’s still good to have the conversation.” “Comedians are sort of battling with what they can say, what they can get away with,” says Omotayo Banjo of the University of Cincinnati. At the same time, more sensitive comics are finding niches as audiences seek out something different. Despite protests against him, Dave Chappelle still commands large crowds. In the end, much of what defines comedy often comes from the audience – what it expects out of a comedian, and what it finds funny. For their critics, their jokes are sometimes unnecessarily cruel, are in poor taste, or even have a dangerous influence on how people think and act. They find themselves on the front lines of the ever-changing boundaries of what can and can’t be said – and sometimes face serious consequences for getting it wrong. To some comedians, the era of “wokeness” has become a new Puritanism.

As cancel culture sweeps the United States, often targeting comedians, the question looms: Is it protecting people from harmful laugh lines or stifling a valuable form of expression? But it can also be a uniter, helping us see a fresh perspective.

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