This is the John Fugel-Sang podcast.

Welcome back.

This is Serious XM.

I'm John Fugelsang. I'm so excited for this

next guest. I'm always thrilled whenever we can sucker this man into being on our

show. There's this common belief you guys know that we live in brand new times

where people are so reactionary. People are so easy to offend today.

We've heard Seinfeld and Chris Rock both say they can't play colleges anymore because young

people are too PC. I didn't know

Seinfeld and Chris Rock were even still playing colleges in this century.

Imagine my surprise on that one. And then there's our right-wing friends who in

many cases have gone crazy trying to cancel anything. right Umbridge, both the left and the right have long histories of being deeply offended

over entertainment. And they say you can't joke about anything anymore, but our next guest has

written an excellent and deeply entertaining new book about how contemporary TV film, music and theater has more freedom of expression than ever.

If you're a fan of comedy, you already know the name Clis Nesteroff.

He's been called the

premier popular historian of comedy by the New York Times. His previous books include

the comedians, drunks, thieves, scoundrels, and the history of American comedy

as well as we had a little real estate problem,

the unheralded story of Native Americans and comedy.

He's been praised by every comedian you have ever loved, and his new book is called

Outrageous, A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars and expansive history of

...