This is a headgum podcast. I don't know what to think I don't know what to say

and that's all right that's okay

I don't know anything.

Hello and welcome to Factually. I'm Adam Conover.

Thank you so much for joining me again.

You know, there's this tiresome trend in comedy in which comics, especially famous older comics, the kind of folks I used to really admire, are getting paid millions to do big specials on the largest platforms that exist and during these specials they complain

about being silenced and censored.

It is frankly boring, but it's also part of a grand American tradition because for as long as comedy has been around,

people have claimed that you can't do comedy anymore, that you can't say what you want to say.

Here's the weird thing though. Couple decades ago you would get arrested and thrown in prison for saying the wrong thing on stage

Whereas today you just get yelled at at the internet and maybe you don't get hired for another job. The fact is that American society is today far more

permissive about every type of speech than we were just a few decades ago and the

strange truth is that the idea that American culture is more

censorious that that people are stopping us from saying what we want to say

is actually propaganda that is being pushed out by the same forces that were censoring us just a few decades ago.

It is a bizarre social transition that has taken place and it's hard to appreciate unless you

actually dive into the history of comedy and popular entertainment more broadly.

And guess what?

That is what we're going to do on the show today.

My guest today is an amazing historian of comedy and pop culture.

His name is Cliff Nesorov,

and I know you're gonna love this interview.

...