Tim Allen has long been one of the only stars in Hollywood who is not afraid to speak out against cancel culture and express conservative views. Now, he’s opening up about what he feels is the “saddest thing” about the current state of comedy.
Allen Reveals ‘Saddest Thing’ About Comedy Today
“I got into this business because of my college attraction to Lenny Bruce and eventually late college I saw Richard Pryor in concert and George Carlin,” Allen, 69, told Fox News. “You never thought of what they were doing as infuriating people to make them laugh.”
In the current climate, however, Allen does not think that Bruce, Pryor, and Carlin would be allowed to tell the jokes that made them famous.
“Nowadays, you know, I don’t think they would be allowed to say that,” the former “Home Improvement” star lamented. “So, that’s the saddest thing in the world to me. That everything is OK as long as I’m not being offended.”
Allen went on to complain that instead of “just not listening or walking away,” offended people typically take to social media to “tear somebody up” because they are “tolerant.”
“Sometimes I find it so funny,” he continued. “I’m a very tolerant person except for people that disagree with me.”
Allen then said that the whole point of comedy is “to exaggerate to clarify.”
“That’s what I do – is I lie to tell the truth,” he explained. “That’s what comedy is about. You’re overextending yourself so that people go, ‘S–t, that is weird.’”
Is Cancel Culture A Phase?
That being said, Allen also thinks that the current backlash that comedians are finding themselves being hit with may just be a “phase.”
“I believe it’s a phase because my touring has been the same,” he said. “I don’t get anybody, hopefully, getting mad enough to hurt me or yell out screaming in my big concerts. Comedy isn’t about hurting people, it’s herding – get everybody together to laugh at this thing. If you get hurt by it, that’s unfortunate. That’s never my intent.”
“We’re all in the same boat here, folks,” he concluded. “I’m not trying to sink the boat or rock the boat. Actually, I do like rocking the boat. I don’t want to sink the boat.”
Allen knows a thing or two about comedy, as he’s been a professional comedian ever since the 1970s. He also knows all about cancel culture, as he’s been targeted by it many times for his conservative views.
Related: Tim Allen Hit With Backlash Over Joke That Saying Merry Christmas ‘Has Become Problematic’
Allen’s Political Views
“My political party is that I’ve never liked taxes, period, so whatever that means,” Allen once told Entertainment Weekly. “I don’t like paying people who never seem to do what I would do with my money. I always thought it would be funny if I had a little menu on my tax returns where I could tell them where my money would go.”
Allen also received backlash last year when he said that he “liked” the former President Donald Trump.
“Once I realized that the last president pissed people off, I kind of liked that,” he said while appearing on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast.“So it was fun to just not say anything — didn’t join in the lynching crowd.”
Allen then described himself as a fiscal conservative who does not want to “preach anything.”
“What I’ve done is just not joined into, as I call it, the ‘we culture,'” he said. “I’m not telling anybody else how to live. I don’t like that ‘We should do this,’ or ‘We should do that.'”
Allen is one of the few stars in Hollywood today who isn’t afraid to think for himself and tell it like it is. If only there were more celebrities in Hollywood like him!
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