Interview · moment 8 of 36
The Queer Comedy Scene and Moralizing Drag Queens
from #173 - Shane Gillis | The Tim Dillon Show · #173
4 min
Guest
Shane discusses the insular queer/alt comedy scene, how it has shifted from edgy and mean to moralistic, and laments that modern drag queens lecture about politics instead of being funny.
- Tim on the queer comedy scene in New York: it has more talent than the alternative comedy scene, but people now brand themselves by having the right opinions about what constitutes hate speech.
- These comedians dismiss alt comedy as hate speech without ever attending a show or knowing the performers involved, stuck in their insular East Village bubble.
- Tim explains his approach differs from the cloistered queer scene: he wanted to entertain as many people as possible, not just a small circle of friends in the East Village.
- The woke snake eats itself, and gay guys used to pride themselves on being tough, cynical, mean, and catty—now they're moralists, which is boring.
- Tim compares performative morality in comedy to his aunt Sheryl preaching Jesus—nobody pays money to see that in a nightclub.
- Drag queens used to say the most fucked-up, brutally funny things, but now they're afraid to say anything, worried about political correctness.
- Tim wants lowbrow, funny humor from drag queens—race jokes, crude material—not moral crusades disguised as entertainment.
- Some of the moralist comedians message Tim privately saying they enjoy his work, but there's no public acknowledgement because of their public positioning.