Comedian Sarah Silverman said she disagreed with fellow comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Maher about college students being too easily repelled by content they perceive as politically incorrect. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Silverman said comedians should instead “listen to the college-aged because they lead the revolution.”
“To a degree, everyone’s going to be offended by something, so you can’t just decide on your material based on not offending anyone,” Silverman said. “But I do think it’s important as a comedian, as a human, to change with the times, to change with new information.”
‘But I do think it’s important as a comedian, as a human, to change with the times, to change with new information.’
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with changing with the times,” she continued. “I think it’s a sign of being old when you’re put off by that.”
The comic urged her colleagues to instead take direction from students: “You have to listen to the college-aged, because they lead the revolution – they’re pretty much always on the right side of history.”
She did have one gripe with college students: “The thing that bums me out sometimes about colleges is that it’s a sea of iPhones and because comedy is something where you’re connecting, it’s a bummer. Because you just end up saying your jokes to a sea of empty vessels through which Facebook expresses itself.”