A week ago, Disney fired 'Guardian of the Galaxy' director James Gunn over offensive tweets. In an attempt to be a provocateur, Gunn cracked tasteless jokes about pedophilia, rape, AIDS, the 9/11 attacks and the Holocaust. However, these 'indefensible' tweets are nearly a decade old. Gunn posted them long before Disney hired him to direct the first 'Guardians' movie.
So, why is this just coming up now? On social media, Gunn has been an outspoken Trump critic. Right-wing activists - such as Mike Cernovich, Jack Posobiec and other trolls - dug up Gunn's old edgelord tweets in a concerted effort to get him fired. It worked. Cernovich told The Wrap he thinks "Hollywood is rotten to the core" and plans to run more smear campaigns against liberal celebrities. To him, "Twitter is just modern-day gladiatorial combat."
The latest Hollywood target appears to be comedian/actress Sarah Silverman. When Silverman first blew up as a stand-up comic, she told a lot of shock-value jokes. Over the years, her act evolved, becoming more introspective and political. But those old jokes don't disappear. Currently, Twitter users are furious - or pretending to be furious - over one of Sarah tweets from 2009: "Hey, is it considered molestation if the child makes the first move? I'm gonna need a quick answer on this."
One person wrote, "Clearly nothing funny about that tweet. No way you say it, spin it or twist it, the fact remains it was tasteless and a head-turner." A second wrote, "It’s not a joking matter." A third wrote, "You’re not going to normalize pedophilia, period! #MAGA." A fourth wrote ",Pedophilia is not funny. It destroys lives. I know it's common in Hollywood." A fifth wrote, "You are a pedophile and you friends are going to prison."
Apparently, right-wing trolls believe joking about pedophilia makes you a pedophile (it doesn't), pedophilia is common in Hollywood (it's not) and that liberals want to normalize pedophilia (they don't). In the comments, Sarah stood by her decision to post the joke. One person asked, "Was that supposed to be funny? Cause it wasn't." Sarah replied, "That's ok doll. Comedy is subjective. I thought it was a funny/dumb tweet 8 years ago when I posted it."
Sarah voices Vanellope von Schweetz in Disney's animated hit Wreck It Ralph and the upcoming sequel, Ralph Breaks The Internet. (And all the Disney princesses get a cameo!) Apparently, right-wing activists are hoping to repeat their success with James Gunn, and persuade the Mouse House to fire Sarah. The I Love You, America Host fired back at critics calling her a "pedophile" for her joke.
"Some very odd people R saying I’m a pedo, re: a joke from a time not that long ago when hard absurd jokes by comedians were acknowledged for what they were — jokes — not a disengenuous national threat to people fake-clutching their pearls (whilst ranting the country’s too PC)."
Critics might respond, what about Roseanne Barr? ABC cancelled her sitcom - the #1 show on television - after she tweeted a racist joke about former Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett. However, Roseanne's situation differs because the scandalous tweet was recent - not from a decade ago.
While speaking to GQ, Sarah reflected that "not all comedy is evergreen." "If you're doing [comedy] right, you look back at your old stuff and you're horrified." And when you tell a joke on Twitter, it's there forever.
