Kat Timpf on cancel culture, 2024 and the 'healing mechanism' of comedy during crisis
There might not be much to laugh about in times of crisis and war, but Kat Timpf says it’s the darkest moments when comedy becomes even more essential.
“I’ve found that joking about this stuff takes away some of its power,” the comedian and co-host of Fox News’s “Gutfeld!” said.
“The scarier and more devastating and awful and insurmountable something can seem, if you also say, ‘Oh, you can't joke about that,’ that makes it seem even more powerful,” Timpf told ITK.
“It doesn't mean that it's not serious, or awful or devastating,” continued the commentator, who describes herself as libertarian.
“You're totally allowed to think a joke’s not funny. You’re totally allowed to say, ‘Oh, that hurt my feelings. I don't like that joke, here's why,’ and have a conversation about it,” Timpf said.
“To say ‘you can't joke about that’ is actually a cruel thing to say when you think about it, because what you're doing is you're limiting the healing mechanism that people who are dealing with trauma might need.”
That’s part of what drove Timpf to pen her bestselling book, released earlier this year, “You Can’t Joke About That.”
Now on a nationwide comedy tour, 35-year-old Timpf said there’s no topic that she considers off-limits.
“I'm a free speech absolutist,” she said, but noted that there’s a distinction between jokes and “somebody who’s just being a jerk on purpose.”
“It matters if someone was trying to make a joke, versus somebody was being racist because that person is a racist and wants to spread racism. Of course, there's a difference,” she said.
“I’m a sensitive person. I have a lot of feelings. But I don't think there's a such thing as a subject that humor would not touch.”
Timpf suggested, however, there might be one subject she’s not eager for comedians to face: a potential rematch between President Biden and former President.
Asked if another battle for the Oval Office between Biden and Trump, who polls have shown has a wide lead over the field of GOP presidential hopefuls, would make things tougher for comics, Timpf replied, “I think in some ways, yes.”
“I think it's also just emotionally, are we really gonna go through this again?” she asked with a laugh.
“I always vote third party and I'm open about that,” she added. “So all that remains to be seen when it's all over is which side is going to blame me for the law.”
As a comedian, Timpf said the threat of getting “canceled” always lingers in the back of her mind.
But, she said, “What I found is that it’s never the thing you think it’s going to be.”
Timpf recalled the threats she said she faced after throwing out a “Star Wars”-related barb.
“All I said was I'd never seen Star Wars because I was too busy liking cool things and being attractive. There [were] corners of the internet that did not appreciate that.”
The one-liner got a not-so-funny reaction.
“I got death threats — a lot of sexual violence, much of it involving Lightsabers. It was this huge thing,” she recounted.
“What people don't understand sometimes is that there's no way really to know if a joke is going to hit or not until you try it. And you can't really be afraid to swing and miss, because sometimes you're going to swing and miss.”
“I think we need to get back to understanding, look, if the intention was comedy, let’s weigh that,” she said.
“I think that when we do have free open speech and people feel really free to express themselves, there's going to be no limits for how we can kind of connect with the people around us.”