Sarah Silverman - If You Have To Explain It (Jesus Is Magic Pt. 6)

- I got in trouble

for saying the word
'chink' on a talk show,

on a network talk show.

It was in the context of a
joke, you know, obviously,

that would be weird,

that would be like a
really bad career choice.

But, nevertheless,

the president of an
Asian-American watched our group

out here in Los Angeles,
his name is Guy Aoki,

and he was up in arms about it

and he put my name in all the papers

calling me a racist and it

hurt you know,

I mean as a Jew, as a member
of the Jewish community.

You know, I was really
concerned, you know,

that we were losing control of the media.

(laughing)

Right?

I mean what kind of world do we live in

where a totally cute

white girl can't say chink
on network television?

(laughing)

It's like the 50's, it's scary.

There are only two Asian people

that I know that I have
any problem with at all.

One is Guy Aoki,

the other is my friend Steve

who actually went pee-pee in my Coke.

(laughing)

He's all, "me Chinese, me play joke,"

if you have to explain it Steve,

it's not funny.

(laughing)

It's not funny.

When you have to break it down.

You have to be able to laugh at yourself,

so that's what I tell
Asian people all the time.

(laughing)

They don't listen.

Midgets, you know the politically correct,

the politically correct word

for 'midget' is 'little person,'

which just tickles me because, you know,

it's like the only
politically correct word

that's actually more insulting
that the original word.

Midgets don't like being
called little people,

they much prefer,

"yes you are,

ah bah bah bah bah,

ah bah boo boo boo."

(laughing)

Thank you for that, I appreciate it.

I always feel crappy when I do that joke,

but it gets such a good laugh.

I just feel like, what
did midgets ever do,

you know, as a people
to deserve to be mocked?

They're human beings
born extra crazy small.

(laughter)

I don't think anybody here

thinks we should make
fun of midgets, you know,

but we do anyway.

I think it's because

I think it's because, you know,

I'll tell you why we make fun of midgets,

we're not afraid of them.

That's what it always boils
down to across the board.

You know.

I mean, I had a joke with
the word 'nigger' in it

that I thought was so edgy,

so hip,

and I was doing it all
over town at comedy clubs

and I was at this one club doing my show

and I look in the front row

and the whole front table is black people,

or African American people,

and you know what,

it was half and half I'm pretty sure,

(laughing)

but the point is,

I didn't do the joke,

and then you gotta ask yourself,

"is that an edgy joke or
is that a racist joke?"

And I didn't do it 'cause I
was afraid of them, you know.

(laughing)

I didn't, and I ended up
changing that joke to chinks.

(laughing)

So, you live and you learn
and hopefully you grow.

I was going on, I was
about to go on a talk show

and talk about that whole kind of idea

how we make fun of people
that we're not afraid of,

but we refrain from making
fun of people that scare us,

and I was about to go on

and the segment producer came over to me,

and he said, you know,

instead of 'nigger' say "the 'n' word,"

and I said, "great, what do you
want me to say for 'chink',"

and he said, "say chink."

(laughing)

I'd like to sing a song for you now.

(laughing)

(laughing)