A comedian who said local officials pressured a New Jersey venue to cancel his show fears the government will abuse its power to censor comics.
“We went from liberal activists convincing business owners not to host us, to city government officials basically threatening and extorting venue owners if they’re willing to let us perform and speak,” a comedian with Los Angeles-based Josh Denny told Fox News. Cancel culture “will come first for the comedians, and then everyone else will be at the mercy of people who abuse their position as a proxy to exercise their own political beliefs,” Denny said.
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The Williams Center in Rutherford, New Jersey, canceled the November 10 Denny’s Comedy Show hours before it was scheduled to start. Mayor Frank Nunziato said in a statement that police believed “the event had the potential for a confrontation” and that it was canceled after “discussions with the owner.”
Denny said any violent threats came from anonymous Twitter users.
“This is cyberterrorism,” he told Fox News. “The reason it’s effective is because everyone is afraid.”
The Los Angeles comedian, who is touring with Anthony Cumia and Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes, said four venues have canceled his tour fearing violence from locals who find his humor offensive or object to his political beliefs. While the Proud Boys have frequently been linked to violence and were involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, Denny said there were no physical incidents at any of the nine performances on tour.
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Counter-protesters gather outside Netflix headquarters on October 20, 2021 in Los Angeles, California in support of free speech in comedy as other protesters demand that Dave Chappelle be held accountable for promoting hate speech against the community transgender in his comedy special.
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McInnes has threatened to sue Rutherford over the canceled event.
People “can just call free speech hate speech and have people’s civil rights taken away,” Denny said. “The concept of hate speech is some of the worst marketing we’ve allowed to happen in America because anyone can label ideas they don’t like as hate speech.”
Comedians have faced increased scrutiny in recent years, with critics arguing that humor they find offensive is hate speech, while supporters argue that such expressions of free speech are an essential part of the industry. In particular, Dave Chappelle has faced significant backlash for jokes about the transgender community, particularly those made in his Netflix special, “The Closer.”
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Denny previously told Fox News that the people trying to censor comedians were a small, over-the-top group of critics, but some comedians and business owners have let him down in recent months by caving in to pressure and scaremongering.
“The so-called truth tellers are now playing the man,” Denny said. “I’m almost done giving my fellow comedians a pass when they sit idly by and don’t talk about this when it happens.”
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“If you’re not willing to be uncomfortable fighting for the America we want to live in, I don’t have time for you and we’re not on the same team,” he added.
The police department declined to comment. Neither the mayor’s office nor the Williams Center immediately responded to a request for comment.
To learn more from Denny on the censorship of comedians, click here.
