Katt Williams opened up about his views on “cancel culture” this week, saying that heightened sensitivity in comedy is “done for the reasons it’s done for” and questioned if there’s anyone who got “canceled” who people actually “want back.”
On a new episode of “The Joe Budden Podcast,” Budden chopped it up with the comedy legend for a lengthy discussion, at one point asking Williams about the effects of “cancel culture” on comedy.
While some of Twitter may have been surprised by Katt’s stance, the comedian kept it real, comparing sensitivity in comedy to out-of-bounds lines in basketball and speed limits when driving.
“Nobody likes the out of bounds, but the out of bounds gotta be there or you’ll run up in the stands,” Katt said. “Some of these things are for the benefit of everything. Nobody likes the speed limit but it’s necessary. Nobody likes the shoulder of the road but it’s there for a reason. My point is, people weren’t all that extremely funny when they could say whatever they wanted to say.”
Katt continued, explaining that “cancel culture” doesn’t exist, and that heightened sensitivity has been pushed by “people without a voice being trashed” by others like they “didn’t matter.”
“Cancellation doesn’t have its own culture,” Katt said. “That was people of color. That was us policing our own culture. That was people without a voice being trashed by people just because they had a bigger name than them and more money than them and a better office than them, they could sweep them up under the rug like they didn’t matter. I don’t know what people we think got canceled that we wish we had back.”
Williams also shared that being a comedian means entertaining the masses, and that the words you choose to use can interfere with that goal.
“If all that’s gonna happen is we have to be more sensitive in the way that we talk, isn’t that what we want anyway? I’m saying, your job as a comedian is to please the most amount of people with your art,” Williams said. “If you want to offend somebody, nobody took those words away from you. ‘Dirty bitch’ ain’t been taken away, you can say that. But don’t call somebody this word when you know this effects all of these people.”
