Tribeca ’17: Gilbert

It’s like the turning of the leaves or the swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano. Periodically, somebody in the outrage business gets apoplectic over something Gilbert Gottfried said. Normally, the joke is on them, but when admittedly tasteless tsunami jokes cost the comedian his lucrative Aflac commercial gig, many assumed the speech police had finally claimed his scalp. Yet, the manically nebbish stand-up is still standing. Viewers get a peek behind his outrageous facade in Neil Berkeley’s documentary profile Gilbert, which screens during the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival.

Gottfried was always a comic’s comic in part because of his gleeful willingness to skewer sacred cows. His career kicked into high gear after his characteristically frenzied cameo in Beverly Hills Cop 2, but probably his biggest paydays were as the voice of the parrot in Aladdin and the Aflac duck. Berkeley duly covers Gottfried career high/low lights, such as his notorious appearance at the Hugh Hefner roast, which started with poorly received 9-11 jokes and ended with essentially the public debut of the filthy-as-the-day-is-long “Aristocrats” joke that has always been reserved for private one-upmanship among fellow comics.

The very same Gottfried also happens to be married to a woman who seems to be emotionally healthy and well-adjusted. Even Gottfried isn’t sure how that worked. Berkeley worms his way into their private lives pretty deeply, giving us some insight into their relationship. Clearly, Gottfried is a guarded person by nature, but he opens up—probably more than he expected. We also learn how close he was to his mother and his sisters. Granted, Gilbert is nowhere as revealing as Weiner—and thank goodness for that—but it humanizes the eccentric comedian to a shocking extent.

In many ways, Gilbert compares with Neil Barsky’s thoroughly entertaining Ed Koch documentary, aptly titled Koch. Both were very private individuals, yet they rather unrepentantly ignited public controversies with their outspokenness. However, Berkeley hardly explores the free speech implications of the Gilbert Gottfried experience, beyond some hat-tips to Lenny Bruce. For that kind of analysis, check out Ted Balaker’s funny and frightening Can We Take a Joke?, featuring the post-Aflac Gottfried.

The portrait of Gottfried that emerges through Berkeley’s lens is quite complex, but fans need not worry. He is still happy to meet their expectations for crudeness and crassness. Funny yet weirdly endearing, Gilbert is highly recommended for everyone except Puritanical Social Justice Warriors when it screens again tonight (4/21), Tuesday (4/25), and next Friday (4/28), as part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Can We Take a Joke?: Losing Our Right to Laugh

In 2010, only 40% of incoming college freshmen agreed it was safe to hold unpopular opinions on campuses. When polled again as seniors four years later, only 30% agreed. That is terrifying, because it suggests future adults have been acclimatized to an environment without free speech. As a result, in a recent Pew survey 40% of millennials supported curbs on free speech on social justice warrior grounds. That is obscene. It is our rights they are willing to trade away, but it is comedians who are the canaries in the coal mine. Director Ted Balaker and a platoon of outspoken comics ask WWLBD or “what would Lenny Bruce do?” in the funny and alarming documentary Can We Take a Joke? (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

No comedian has been arrested on obscenity charges since Bruce’s 1964 trial in New York. His biographer and posthumous attorney readily point out the irony that the cops and politicians who once targeted Bruce would now respect his First Amendment rights, but he could never play college campuses today. Chris Lee is a case in point. Washington State University administrators actually recruited a mob to disrupt the staging of his gleefully tasteless campus production, Passion of the Musical. Now that’s obscene.

Some of stories of rampant political correctness are just plain ludicrous, like Gilbert Gottfried getting fired from his gig as the voice of the Aflac duck because of a joke about the Japanese tsunami. Seriously, what part of Gilbert Gottfried didn’t they understand? Obviously, they never saw him on the Comedy Central roasts. Clearly, Gottfried is not about to shut-up anytime soon. Indeed, he offers plenty of no holds barred commentary throughout the film, along with unintimidated colleagues, like Adam Carolla, Penn Jillette, Heather McDonald, and Jim Norton.

On the other hand, Justine Sacco remains in hiding, but her story clearly illustrates the point. She became the face of internet mob justice when she Tweeted: “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” before boarding a plane. While she was offline, she was pilloried by the righteous (naturally led by Gawker) and fired by her employer, IAC (they own Tinder and Chelsea Clinton sits on their board of directors) without giving her a chance to tell her side of the story. That’s obscene. For the record, it was a bad joke, but it was meant to be satirical.

Indeed, this kind of political correctness deliberately deafens the masses to notions of context, which profoundly impoverishes the level of public discourse. The implications for a relatively free democracy are absolutely chilling.

There might be a little too much Lenny Bruce love slightly unbalancing Take a Joke, but its analysis is always spot on, particularly that of Greg Lukianoff, the president the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). It will make you offended by the professionally offended and outraged at kneejerk outrage. Timely but hopefully not too late, it also features a good deal of laughs (albeit often bitter ones). Highly recommended for free-thinkers as well as any Millennials not afraid of getting their feelings slightly bruised, Can We Take a Joke? opens this Friday (7/29) in New York, at the Cinema Village.