We can all agree, sitting here and drinking coffee (or tea — I’m not about to start throwing shade), that 2015 is Amy Schumer’s year. On top of the runaway success of her self-titled/made series (Inside Amy Schumer), she hosted the MTV Movie Awards, and will be starring in Trainwreck in a couple of weeks. So naturally, she’s going to defend her material.
Taking to Twitter yesterday, Schumer warned readers to “put down your torches before reading this so you don’t catch fire,” then went on to say that among many other topics, she’ll continue to make jokes about race.
“I will joke about things you like and I will joke about things you aren’t comfortable with,” she wrote. “And that’s ok. Stick with me and trust I am joking. I go in an out of playing an irreverent idiot. That includes making dumb jokes involving race. I enjoy playing the girl who time and time again says the dumbest thing possible and playing with race is a thing we are not supposed to do, which is what makes it so fun for comics.”
“You can call it a ‘blind spot for racism’ or ‘lazy’ but you are wrong,” she continued. “It is a joke and it is funny. I know that because people laugh at it.”
And okay, sure. So how did this even start? Evidently, The Guardian had written a profile on Schumer, which was super-flattering, but also mentioned that the comic tends to delve “into racial territory tactlessly.” Schumer’s response was actually a little bit longer too (and you can read it here), which gave even more insight into where her comedy comes from, and begs the question: so what do you guys think?
