If you just don’t care, that’s fine—that’s your choice—but understand this: I know you think you’re being transgressive and edgy and bad-in-the-cool-way when you are careless with the trauma of strangers, but you’re not. You are being conservative. You are a conservative comedian. You are moving your art form backwards, you are a bully (a bully who has likely experienced bullying himself, which is the worst kind), and you are propping up the status quo in the most boring way possible. If that’s what you want, at least have the grace to own it.

Comedy and social responsibility are not mutually exclusive. Comedy and empathy are not enemies. And no subject matters or words are off limits, in the abstract. (Though, as I’ve written before, I’m pretty sure there are literally hundreds of things to joke about that don’t involve the violent invasion of my vagina!) You do not have to stop talking about rape. I’ve made my feelings clear on that matter and won’t be wasting much time on specifics here. You do not have to stop talking about your bitchy ex-girlfriend. You do not have to stop talking about race or class or midgets or whatever the fuck you think is worth talking about (though you should probably stop talking about midgets, seriously). But you do have to live with the consequences of what you say, and how your words color people’s perceptions of what kind of human being you are. If you do nothing but shower your audiences with hate and garbage, they’re going to start thinking of you as a hate and garbage machine.