Comedian Ben Bankas just learned an expensive lesson about the evolving standards of what audiences will tolerate in the name of comedy.
Six sold-out shows. All canceled. All because of a viral video showing Bankas mocking Renee Good, a disability rights advocate, in a manner that crossed the line from edgy humor into something uglier.
People magazine has the details, including Bankas's response - a mix of defensiveness and half-apologies that suggests he still doesn't quite understand why venues decided they didn't want to be associated with him.
Let's be clear about what this is and isn't. This isn't "cancel culture run amok." This is venues making a business decision that hosting a comedian who mocks people with disabilities is bad for their brand. It's comedy clubs reading the room and deciding the room doesn't want this particular act.
Comedy has always pushed boundaries. The best comedians find the edge and dance along it, making audiences uncomfortable in ways that ultimately illuminate truth. But there's a difference between boundary-pushing and punching down. There's a difference between discomfort that serves a purpose and cruelty for its own sake.
Mocking a disability advocate isn't edgy. It's just mean.
Bankas seems to think this is about censorship, about audiences being too sensitive, about the death of comedy as an art form. It's not. It's about basic decency. It's about understanding that your right to make jokes doesn't obligate anyone to give you a platform or buy tickets.
The entertainment industry has always had consequences for behavior that crosses certain lines. What's changed is where those lines are drawn. Audiences - particularly younger audiences - have higher standards for how marginalized communities are portrayed and discussed. That's not weakness. That's progress.
Will Bankas work again? Probably. Comedy has a remarkably short memory, and there's always an audience for "tell it like it is" acts who position themselves as martyrs to political correctness.
But those six venues made the right call. Comedy should afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. Bankas got it backwards.
