Seth Rogen has offered his two cents on comedians that won’t stop harping on about cancel culture.
In a new interview with Good Morning Britain, Rogen mused that jokes aging poorly are “the nature of comedy,” and not a result of the phantom “cancel culture.”
These past few years have witnessed a number of high-profile comedians target their ire towards the nebulous concept of cancel culture, including the likes of Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr and Ricky Gervais.
Reflecting on his previous films, Rogen said, “I think conceptually those movies are sound and I think there’s a reason they’ve lasted. Jokes are not things that necessarily are built to last.”
He went on to criticise comedians that are haunted by cancel culture “To me, when I see comedians complaining about this kind of thing, I don’t understand what they’re complaining about,” he added. “If you’ve made a joke that’s aged terribly, accept it. And if you don’t think it’s aged terribly, then say that.
“Getting criticism is one of the things that goes along with being an artist, and if you don’t like that, then don’t be a comedian anymore,” he continued. “To me, it’s not worth complaining about to the degree I see other comedians complaining about.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Rogen was asked whether he’s ever deleted old tweets that contained inappropriate jokes. The Superbad actor explained that he’s never had to as targeting marginalised groups was never part of his oeuvre.
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“I was never a comedian that made jokes that were truly designed to target groups that were subjugated in some way,” explained Rogen. “Have we done that without realizing it? Definitely. And those things are in our movies and they’re out there, and they’re things that I am more than happy to say that they have not aged well.”
“But in my career I’ve never made a joke that’s outwardly horrific in some way, and if you have, I would question why you did that,” he added. “Saying terrible things is bad, so if you’ve said something terrible, then it’s something you should confront in some way, shape or form. I don’t think that’s ‘cancel culture’, that’s you saying something terrible, if that’s what you’ve done.”
Earlier this month, Seth Rogen revealed that he has no plans of working with longtime collaborator James Franco, amid allegations of sexual misconduct made against the actor. “The truth is that I have not and I do not plan to right now,” he said.
