I love comedy. I mean who doesn't love comedy? After all, for a fleeting moment, comedy has the power to release us from our worries to make us laugh without a care in the world. Most people believe that comedy has no boundaries because anything and anyone can be the butt of a joke. However, these days, more comedians are under fire for using offensive or stereotypical jokes. For example, many LGBTQ activists criticized Dave Chappelle for homophobic and transphobic jokes in his Netflix specials. Some of the jokes include "Whenever I see one of them Ts on the street I’m like ‘I don’t mind them but man I miss Bruce’” and "L. G. B. T. Q?! I was like what the f*** is the Q... It’s for gay dudes that don’t really know they’re gay. you know what I mean." Personally, I read those jokes, rolled my eyes, and went to Twitter. I didn't think those jokes were funny at all as a lesbian. However, I understand that there are no limits in comedy because comedy is just for laughs. It's not meant to be taken seriously and placing limits on comedy would take away the humor. Jokes that aren't funny to me are probably funny to someone else. For these reasons, I simply ignored those jokes and went on with my life. I'm not about to write a whole think piece about how transphobic and homophobic Dave Chappelle is because I only know his comedic persona not his real personality.

However, please do not use my words against other people in the LGBTQ community who may feel differently about this issue. I find myself constantly repeating the fact that the emotions of oppressed people are valid. If a trans girl heard those jokes and didn't think it was funny, we need to respect that because most of the time, the people who enjoy these jokes are not transgender. Therefore, while you may have laughed at Dave Chappelle’s jokes about transgender people, you need to understand that you can easily laugh at these jokes because you are not a part of that marginalized group of people. You may have felt differently about those jokes if you were actually trans. There are probably some trans people who laughed at his jokes. But there are a lot of trans people who were not happy with his jokes due to the struggles they have faced through in life.

This does not only apply to LGBTQ community but to other marginalized groups of people. Giuliana Rancic, a television personality, when referring to Zendaya’s dreadlocks, said that "I feel like she smells like patchouli oil… or maybe weed." Zendaya responded by calling out her ignorance on Twitter. There were people who felt that she took Rancic’s joke too seriously. To those people, have you ever thought about what Zendaya went through in her life for her to respond like that? Like many black people, she is judged by her hair and that joke struck a nerve because it must be annoying for her to constantly deal with ignorance and stereotypes rooted in prejudice.

So where do we go from here? Should we just censor the hell out of comedy? Or should we tell minorities to suck it? My answer is well neither because I don't feel that comedy should be censored. However, I wrote this piece not as a defense of comedy but as a response to comedy fans who tell minorities to get over it. I respect your love for comedy. But please understand that for us, the historically disadvantaged who have gone through such oppression that certain jokes hurt. I won't take away from your love for comedy so don't tell me or anyone else to just get over our feelings.