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3/15/2008 - Touchy

The topical issue this week: what a comedian can and cannot say. On Tuesday, audience members walked out of a show by Dutch comedian Micha Wertheim, after he purportedly offended a handicapped man and reduced him to tears. The owner of the theater where all this unfolded reacted furiously and banned Micha Wertheim from performing there indefinitely. This in turn angered a good portion of this country's most popular comedians, who say they have taken the theater of their list indefinitely.

Regardless of what Micha Wertheim might have said, I think the theater owner over-reacted. The jokes couldn't have been much worse that those of Archie Bunker, and nobody ever protested the reruns of that show. Besides, there has been some evidence that this lady doesn't even know what has been said.

From what I have heard, the following happened. Micha Wertheim was performing to a darkened room. He saw a light that resembled a cell phone display, and that upset him, the way any performer has a right to be upset at someone disrupting the show by calling on the cell phone or even using it to film. He was decent enough to ask what it was all about, and it turned out to be the display of the wheelchair which the man needed to communicate with the person who escorted him.

Later on in the show, Micha Wertheim had a section of jokes about the handicapped, and apparently the man in the wheelchair couldn't take it any longer, started to cry, and left the room. This angered the crowd, and a good portion of them booed and left as well.

Now, this was Micha Wertheim's second show, and the first one has been on TV a whopping three times. Anybody who had bothered to watch that would have known that his jokes can be really crude when taken for what they are, but when you see the context of the entire show, they are just really brilliant gems of irony and satire. That's one of the problems with Dutch comedy these days. It's really hyped up, and people will jump at every opportunity to see a show, without looking into who it is they are going to see. The man in the wheelchair could have known what he was in for.

Plus, the fact that Mr. Wertheim saw the display light to me renders all other arguments invalid. If you're going to a show you have no business fumbling with cellphones etc. It's just annoying to your fellow spectators.

Still, I don't think it should be forbidden. Any comedian who is any good, just should be allowed to deal with it in an appopriate way, the same way I think heckling should not be forbidden. Apparently in America it is, and American comedians have become too sensitive about THAT. In fact they seem to have forgotten about how to deal with hecklers. I've heard this story from England, and they've assured me it's true. An American comedian was doing his routine, and someone started heckling him. So, the comedian said something to this effect, "I warn you, don't heckle me. The last time someone heckled me was September 10, 2001, and they both died in the World Trade Center". The heckler simply countered him, saying, "I'll take my chances."

Technorati Tags: comedy, controversy, micha wertheim, netherlands, news
Filed under: comedy, controversy, micha wertheim, netherlands, news

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