Charles Dickens began his classic “A Tale of Two Cities” with the line, “It was the best of times, the worst of times.” Comedian and author Jimmy Failla is no Charles Dickens, but he uses humor to make a compelling case for why we are living in the dumbest of times in his Amazon best-selling book, “Cancel Culture Dictionary: An A to Z Guide to Winning the War on Fun.”
Who is Jimmy Failla?
Mr. Failla is a comedian, syndicated radio host of “Fox Across America,“ the newly minted television host of ”Fox News Saturday Night,“ and a regular guest on the weekday prime time show, ”Gutfeld.” You might say Failla puts the pun in “pundit.” He’s also a former cab driver, a job he says prepared him for the social antics of today.“Every passenger who jumped in had a take, because prior to the smartphone swallowing human interaction whole, taxis were the original social media, with everyone weighing in on the hottest topics of the day, whether you asked them to or not,” he writes in Chapter 2.
Cancel Culture Corrodes
Many of the canceled subjects the author writes about appeared in the news for all the wrong reasons. For instance, a North Carolina State University broadcaster was suspended for two weeks in late 2022 when reporting a score of another football game and referencing the illegal aliens in El Paso. Broadcaster Gary Hahn said that after El Paso’s Fan Festival was canceled because the El Paso Convention Center was being used to house illegal migrants.“Unfortunately for Hahn, his employer decided the migrants weren’t the only ones who had crossed a border, and he was suspended,” Mr. Failla writes in a chapter about broadcasters and radio personalities who were temporarily or permanently canceled due to on-air comments.
The “best dressed man in cable news” wryly notes that the cancelations demanded by the outrage mob usually do nothing to improve society. Changing the name of the NFL’s Washington Redskins to the Washington Commanders and Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians to the Cleveland Guardians did nothing to confront the real issues involving the American Indian community such as lower life expectancies, heart disease, or alcoholism.
Oftentimes, cancelation efforts have the opposite effect. In what the author calls a preemptive cancel, in March 2021, Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced it would no longer publish six of Seuss’s books because of imagery deemed “racist and insensitive.” The author writes that a week after the six titles were pulled, Dr. Seuss accounted for six of the top 10 books on Amazon’s bestseller list, and 30 Seuss titles made the top 50.
But Seriously, Folks
When Twitter and Facebook banned President Trump, Mr. Failla contends that everybody lost because it was a grievous blow against free speech. “Our speech rights are enshrined in the United States Constitution, and for good reason. When we outsource them to places like Silicon Valley, we run the risk that any of us can be silenced in the public square for defying the political views of whoever’s running the popular app of the day,” he writes.Mr. Failla also offers some interesting observations on public reaction to “The Slap” at the 2022 Oscars when Will Smith stormed onto the stage and slapped presenter Chris Rock for a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada. Smith later “returned to the scene of the crime” and accepted the award for Best Actor. The author zeroes in on the propensity of those who constantly police speech but ignore or excuse genuine violence.
His observes in a chapter on universities that they are covered in “emotional bubble wrap,” which offers an interesting parallel to the free speech dilemma. He notes that universities were once recognized as bastions of free speech. Now, students and staff engage in censorship crusades, claiming to fight fascism, yet stifling the speech of those with whom they disagree. He cites canceled star swimmer Riley Gaines and conservative commentators Katie Pavlich and Tomi Lahren as recent examples.
In many ways, Mr. Failla’s book is like a 1970s’ Dean Martin Celebrity Roast. Some readers may find some of his jokes coarse or off-color, but as the author observes, comedy should be treated like a buffet. If you don’t like an item, you don’t have to make a scene by arguing with the staff and assaulting the chef. You choose what you like, pass on what you don’t like and enjoy the meal.
“Cancel Culture Dictionary” may be Failla’s first book, but he offers some intriguing insights and opinions on today’s culture sandwiched between clever one-liners, witty wordplay and laugh-out loud observations. His writing is concise, informative, and a credit to the defense of free speech and civil discourse.
