Why woke comedy will never be funny: a conversation with comedian Lou Perez

Because it's too middle-class, says NYC-born comedian, writer, podcaster and creator of sketches like "Burglars for Gun Control" and "Trump Therapy."

Lou Perez came across my radar earlier this year, with a very short video he put up on Twitter asking comedians who fear the woke mobs if those keyboard warriors had ever bought tickets to any of their shows. If not, he said (and I’m paraphrasing here), fuck them.

I found the video be tremendously freeing. As in, it literally freed me from the fear of attracting the opprobrium of a bunch of strangers on the internet who do precisely nothing to put food on my table or clothes on my back.

Irish writing and drinking legend Brendan Behan famously put it another way: “fuck the begrudgers.”

Lou Perez and Brendan Behan have that swagger in common. Good for them.

Perhaps that is because they are both (forgive the pretentious phrase) men of the people who are not wrapped up social climbing, virtue signalling, or ass-kissing.

In this conversation, recorded in the summer, Lou talked about his experience navigating the comedy world in our current woke climate, where he says, certain people think: “Before I can laugh with you, I need to agree with you.” He talks about getting the piss taken out of him by his childhood friends when he went back to his old Queens neighbourhood for a funeral, and finally he talked a bit about his forthcoming book. The book is, he said, an antidote to the “woke assault on joy and humour and happiness.”

“Let’s embrace the gifts we’ve been given, and let’s have fun.”