WATCH: Jimmy Failla and Dennis Miller Discuss The Evolution Of Comedy On 'Fox News Saturday Night'
Comedian Dennis Miller joins "Fox News Saturday Night" to talk about how stand-up comedy has changed since he started playing clubs in the 1980s.
Comedy was mugged by cancel culture and now sits on life support.
Fox News personality Jimmy Failla sets out to revive the art form with his new book, "Cancel Culture Dictionary: An A to Z Guide to Winning the War on Fun."
"This book is not a call to arms. It's just a call to chill out," Failla said in a telephone interview with Fox News Digital.
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Cancel culture, he noted, has endangered the political dissent and freedom of thought essential to comedy, art and human sanity.
"Nothing in our lives has been improved by the era of incentivized outrage," writes the host of "FOX News Saturday Night" on the Fox News Channel and "FOX Across America" on Fox News Radio.
Jimmy Failla’s new book "Cancel Culture Dictionary" shines a spotlight on the "incentivized outrage" that has been stifling creativity. (Fox News)
"We’re more agitated and politically divided … It’s time to stop empowering a movement where the biggest winners are a bunch of losers."
"Cancel Culture Dictionary" fights back with jabs, hooks and uppercuts of wit.
Failla highlights the industries and people trampled into compliance by a herd of cancel culture cattle.
Sports, publishing and Hollywood are among the notable industries that the Keyboard Kops have chastened.
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Six Dr. Seuss books were banned in 2021 — 30 years after the beloved children’s author died — when racially insensitive illustrations he drew as a young man suddenly surfaced.
"Mascot Mayhem" forced major brands to erase images of non-White icons Aunt Jemima, Mrs. Butterworth and Native American sports teams logos, the Washington Redskins most notably.
Comedian George Carlin filmed his biggest performance in the 1984 HBO production "Carlin on Campus," noted Failla. (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for HBO)
The fight for the soul and freedom of comedy is the most personal battle for Failla.
He was a full-time New York City cab driver from 2007 to 2014 while honing his comedy craft at night and on weekends.
"Nothing in our lives has been improved by the era of incentivized outrage."
He watched with shock as words were called weapons, draining the life out of comedy.
"Anyone who tells you that when it comes to comedy that speech is violence, what they're really telling you is they've never experienced violence," said Failla.
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"I've heard speeches. I've also been stabbed with a screwdriver. I never once said to myself, 'Wow, it's a good thing that guy stabbing me with the screwdriver didn't use any bad language.'"
Fear of the cancel culture mob has stunted opportunities for young comedians, Failla argues.
Most notably, he said, college campuses were once fertile grounds of dissent and comedy. Now, college students are hostile to the social criticism essential to the craft of comedy.
"Cancel Culture Dictionary: An A to Z Guide to Winning the War On Fun" by Jimmy Failla is available now. (FOX News Books)
"I started out doing colleges because when you're an opening comedian, colleges pay the best because they have a campus activities committee that might pay you $1,000 for a gig," said Failla.
"If you're not a name comic opening in a comedy club, you'd be lucky to make $300 for five shows, let alone $1,000 for one. So colleges used to be a livelihood for young comics."
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Comedy legend George Carlin, Failla noted, filmed his biggest performance in the 1984 HBO production "Carlin on Campus."
"The premise was he had to shoot it at a college and these were the only people who wouldn't get offended," said Failla.
Dave Chappelle is shown performing during a midnight pop-up show at Radio City Music Hall on Oct. 16, 2022, in New York City. (Jason Mendez/Getty Images for ABA)
"Now if you shot that special today, it would be called ‘Carlin on Fire’ because they would burn down the university for having their orthodoxy challenged."
Since then, he added, "we saw colleges go from offering an actual livelihood for new comics to something that dried up entirely when it became a liability for big-name comics."
"Guys like Dave Chappelle … exposed cancel culture for what it is and always was, which is a tyranny of the minority."
Steve Harvey and Chris Rock, Failla noted, are among the top-tier talents in comedy who now refuse to play colleges.
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In doing so, "they now agreed to new rules of engagement that it's OK for these colleges to get offended," said Failla.
"The truth is that it's the guys like Dave Chappelle who stood up to the mob who are the true allies of up-and-coming comics. They exposed cancel culture for what it is and always was, which is a tyranny of the minority."
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