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The post Steve Harvey Says He Quit Standup Because of Cancel Culture<\/a> appeared first on Consequence<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a development that hopefully won\u2019t be included in his forthcoming biopic<\/a>, actor-comedian Steve Harvey<\/a> has admitted that he retired from stand-up due to \u201ccancel culture.\u201d We sure it wasn\u2019t all those flubs on stage<\/a>, Mr. Harvey?<\/p>\n Harvey\u2019s comments came during a recent episode of The Pivot Podcast<\/em> (via Complex<\/em><\/a>). He explained that he saw a significant shift in comedy coming down the cultural pipeline, and dropping stand-up was a necessary reaction to the forthcoming upheaval.<\/p>\n \u201cYou remember, I said change is inevitable. You got to react or participate,\u201d Harvey said. \u201cSo my participation was to get away from it because the cancel culture started becoming everywhere. Comedy is too hard to do right now. And all you got to do is look now the way the cancel culture works.\u201d<\/p>\n Harvey added that, despite the lucrative nature of his stand-up career, he ultimately chose to step away after more than 30 years on the road. \u201cThat\u2019s why I left stand-up in 2012, 2015 \u2014 one of them,\u201d he said. \u201cI had so many shows and had built such a catalog of work that I was making money, but I had to let something go. If I toured on the weekends, I wouldn\u2019t even have a family.\u201d<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first time Harvey has rallied against cancel culture<\/a>. During a 2022 panel appearance for the Television Critics Association, Harvey said that \u201cno standup [comedian] alive that is sponsor-driven can say anything he wants to,\u201d citing the likes of Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, and D.L. Hughley. At the time, Consequence <\/em>pointed out that, despite significant backlash for transphobic remarks, the similarly seasoned Dave Chappelle still performed at Netflix\u2019s L.A.-based comedy fest. But then poking holes in these kind of \u201carguments\u201d isn\u2019t really the point.<\/p>\n No, what Harvey and other denouncers \u201ccancel culture\u201d are really talking about is a kind of artistic\/comedic stagnation. These comedians want to be allowed to say what they want and whenever they want, and to counter their claims is somehow an attack on them and free speech itself. Fortunately, not every comic agrees with Harvey and his ilk. In a 2021 appearance on the Joe Budden Podcast<\/em><\/a>, Katt Williams said that \u201cCancellation doesn\u2019t have its own culture,\u201d and that a lot of this ongoing discourse is really about minority groups policing themselves\/their culture. He added that it\u2019s a comedian\u2019s job to adapt to ever-shifting social norms, explaining, \u201cNobody likes the speed limit, but it\u2019s necessary.\u201d And, of course, Anthony Jeselnik has made regular rants<\/a> against these \u201canti-accountability\u201d comedians during his own sets.<\/p>\n Harvey\u2019s latest comments came at a time when comedians are actually<\/em> being cancelled due to the democracy-busting actions of President Donald Trump. In July, the Late Show with Stephen Colbert<\/em> was axed due to \u201cfinancial reasons\u201d<\/a>; though some critics believe the Trump Administration leveraged a Skydance-Paramount deal to silence the outspoken Colbert. Meanwhile, Jimmy Kimmel Live!<\/em> was recently suspended (and potentially pulled from the air outright <\/a>) after his (mostly innocuous) comments surrounding the recent assassination of alt-right activist Charlie Kirk. And with Trump making thinly-veiled gestures<\/a> toward the shows of both Jimmy Fallon and Seth Myers, it seems like comedians actually trying to do good work are facing unintended consequences. But I guess comedy\u2019s truly dead if you can no longer make, like, the same dumb jokes about pick-up lines<\/a>.<\/p>\n Check out Harvey\u2019s Pivot<\/em> appearance below. The cancel culture comments begin near the 37-minute mark.<\/p>\n Popular Posts<\/p>\n