The Green Room with Sean Green

I’m writing this article in defense of comedian Adam Carolla and comedy in general. Adam Frucci recently posted a blog on Splitsider entitled ‘Shut The Fuck Up Adam Carolla’, in which he attacks Adam Carolla for not being funny and encouraging him to “shut the fuck up” when it comes to women and comedy. I could attack Mr. Frucci by claiming his own work seems merit less in the comedy department, and that he’s undoubtedly some huge pussy from Brooklyn who wears tight jeans and does a lot of unfunny skits online, but that would be an ad hominem argument so I’ll steer clear of that. Honestly, if you were a comedian you’d be able to tell when another comedian is telling a joke and give your fellow comedians the benefit of the doubt instead of fueling this victim mentality that is leading to the neutering of comedy in general. From a journalistic stand up this blog was insanely lazy. First you don’t give Mr. Carolla’s quote any context. When the journalist asked “The lesson you learned from a sexual harassment seminar was “Don’t hire chicks.” What you forgot to mention, which could be found via a simple Google search (Link to clip: http://youtu.be/4LomFveGbWc?t=3m40s) is that in the sexual harassment seminar the instructor reminded everyone of the 1999 lawsuit by Friends’ assistant writer Amaani Lyle in which she claimed that she was a victim of sexual harassment because of the coarse and vulgar language used in the Friends writers room. So replying back when asked “What did this teach you?” with “Don’t hire chicks” is indeed funny and indeed a joke. In implying that Adam Carolla is outright against female comedy how can you overlook the glaring fact that he hired a woman, on two separate occasions to co-host his radio show and his podcast? He’s been a champion of both prominent women that he has had on his show in Alison Rosen and Teresa Strasser. He’s had a plethora of female comedians on his show. It’s pretty simple, sometimes when comedians are giving interviews or talking in general they exaggerate the truth or my God even crack a joke? If you don’t think Adam Carolla is funny, that’s fine you’re entitled to a simplistic point of view in which comedy can’t be funny unless we don’t make fun of anyone, but to attempt to paint him as a misogynist without even addressing the fact that he’s had a woman co-host for the past six years seems inexcusable.

“If somebody says to me, ‘What do you think of your mother-in-law,’ and I go, ‘Oh, she’s a delight, I love her dearly,’ nobody laughs. So if they say, ‘What do you think of Chaz Bono,’ I have to say something that’s horrible, so I can get a laugh. And everyone goes, ‘oh, that’s what you think?’ Nice doesn’t get laughs, especially on stage…When did we start holding comedians up to the level of politicians and teachers? We’re supposed to say these things…we make no policies. I don’t control anything. I just tell jokes.” - Adam Carolla

Norm MacDonald on female comedy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHOxaxXMKt0