"The more s-t you give us, the stronger we get. And every good comic will take any kind of adversity and turn it into comic gold."
"Comedy doesn't change the world, but it's a bellwether. We're the banana peel in the coal mine. When a society is under threat, comedians are the ones who get sent away first."
Tom Ammiano was the first person on the San Francisco Bay Times cover in 1978 and remains an LGBTQ+ activist and stand-up comic offering hope and laughs amid right-wing-fueled cancel culture. Ammiano says, "The more s-t you give us, the stronger we get. And every good comic will take any kind of adversity and turn it into comic gold." Authoritarian governments increase risks for comedians, a pattern visible since Roman-era punishments for libel and slander and strict social laws. A brutal assassination of Charlie Kirk on September 10, 2025, intensified right-wing cancel culture, and hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel now face serious career repercussions. Jon Stewart calls comedy a bellwether for societal threat, noting comedians are often targeted first. Both far-left and far-right have contested control over free speech.
Read at San Francisco Bay Times
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