No Laughing Matter
Interview with comedian Bethany Van Delft
Bethany Van Delft has a knack for finding the funny side in everything, and she’s been making people laugh at comedy shows in the Northeast for 20-plus years. (Because when you’ve been doing something for that long, she says, you just add “plus” to the number.)
But the Trump administration’s recent attacks on the media and on comedians like Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert have made her more apprehensive about comedy than ever before—both because of how heavy the daily news cycle is and because, as a woman of color, she worries about the consequences of speaking her mind.
Still, she says, comedy has a special place in the resistance struggle and can be a powerful tool for helping us critique ourselves.
Embrace chatted with Van Delft about what it’s like to be a comedian in a hostile political landscape and where comedy fits into the battle for our First Amendment rights. Here’s an excerpt of the interview, which has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Q: How do you think differently about your job in today's climate? Do you feel you have to watch what you say now more than before?
BVD: Yeah, I mean, it's dangerous. But at different times in history, it's been dangerous to be a comedian or a poet or a painter or writer. Before, when I spoke my mind and shared my thoughts that sometimes were, you know, rankling to people with certain politics, I wasn't afraid of there being a knock at my door or someone coming to get me or someone questioning my kids or whatever. So this is the time that humanity has seen many times before. We cycled back to it again. I do think, you know, in the ‘60s, there were many comedians—Lenny Bruce was a good example—who spoke out vehemently against the Vietnam War, against capitalism, and got arrested regularly. It’s just that you like to believe that we move forward and evolve and leave these things behind us, and that’s not the case.
I sit here in fear that me [*laughs*] speaking freely to you right now is going to get me canceled, which is funny. I haven't been out and about or really doing too much comedy. It's just been hard for me to figure out what's funny in all this. I've just been taking it in. I have been told by other artists and my therapist [*laughs*] that there has to be a period of taking in. You have to take in before you can know what it is that you have to put out. I'm hoping that's the case. But I haven't quit.
And why is comedy, in particular, such an important way to critique the world around us?
One thing that I think of with stand-up comedy specifically is that it's immediate. It's right now. You walk in a club, you walk in a venue, and there's somebody right there in your face in real time telling you how to feel about something or asking you to rethink this thing or asking you to look at this from an angle you may not have looked at before. And comedy like South Park, I think there's precedent for that. Even centuries ago, there were always writers who were very critical of and mocked the ruling class or the government at the time. Commentary, plays, dissertations. But there seemed to be a sense of, these people are intelligent and are speaking their minds and are giving us this take that many of us are thinking ourselves.
There’s also something to someone saying something in a very serious tone, but what they’re saying is completely ridiculous. Like the way administrations put forth all these outlandish ideas in a serious tone, and people go “Oh, this is a great idea.” When I read “A Modest Proposal” in college, it was impactful to me to think about how something so harmful and treacherous can be said in such a serious way that people will buy into it.
As a comedian, what did you think of Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension and the attacks on comedians like him and Stephen Colbert who speak out? And what about the people being attacked who aren’t getting the same news coverage?
It's just interesting to see a certain group rise up, like rage-defend Kimmel. It reminds me of who the First Amendment was originally for: wealthy white male landowners. Historically, it hasn’t been for BIPOC, indigenous, LGBTQ, women. To me, that group spoke out because he is one of the people that the “free speech” amendment was for. It was for him, and people like him. So I think when people saw him being canceled for speaking out, I think they felt threatened. The First Amendment has always protected them, and now it's not protecting them. So they rose up in outrage, and Kimmel’s back on the air.
And I'm happy for him. I'm happy he's back on the air. I'm happy people spoke up. But the truth of the matter is so many people have been fired and canceled for speaking out on things, and that same group of people did not rise up in support. They didn't rise up in outrage. They didn't demand that they get their jobs back. They didn't cancel their subscriptions. They didn't boycott anything. Karen Attiah from the Washington Post was just fired for literally quoting somebody—not even inserting her own opinion, but for quoting someone. Joy Ann Reid was canceled. She openly criticized Trump and questioned, “Isn't this genocide?” about Gaza. The first black woman president of Harvard (Claudine Gay) was pressured to resign for upholding free speech. So where was this group of people standing up in outrage, protecting them and demanding their positions back? Where are the boycotts for them?
It's really, really scary and discouraging, heartbreaking. There were that many people who boycotted and spoke up, enough people to get his job back. That means there were that many people when these Black women were fired who could have stood up and gotten their jobs back, and they just didn't.
How would you encourage people to keep that same energy when it's not happening to the people that look like them?
They should reflect on what it is that they're offended by. Are they offended that free speech was challenged? Or are they offended that it’s someone who looks like them and makes them scared that they also can come under attack? I think reflection is really important because if it really is free speech [that has you worried], then you really have to pick your head up and see all the places where free speech is being attacked and speak up in all those spaces. And if it isn't free speech, I hope that people can have courage and be brave and own up to the fact that they really are just caring about their own personal comfort.
