2000s: "Comedy is Tragedy" - Gilbert Gottfried
“It was a couple of weeks after 9/11. There was a weird feeling in New York. People were walking around in a daze. I was at the roast of Hugh Hefner, and I just wanted to be the first person to make a really-poor-taste joke about September 11. It was impromptu; I don’t remember thinking about it beforehand. I said, ‘I have to leave early tonight, I have a flight to California. I can’t get a direct flight — they said I have to stop at the Empire State Building first.’” - Gilbert Gottfried via Vulture
After the horrific attacks on 9/11, comedians were put in a tough spot professionally. Their job is to make people laugh, but how can you laugh after a national tragedy? Gilbert Gottfried’s performance at Hugh Hefner's roast in 2001 is often credited as the first publicly broadcasted joke about 9/11 shortly after the attacks. Even despite the backlash, this still influenced other comedians to develop their own 9/11 material with the intention of using laughter as healing, not mockery. This is an archive of a time and sensibility after a terrorist attack in which the question was raised to comedians and the public; what is “too soon”?
