Dane Cook Says Cancel Culture Can Be Good for Business

As long as it’s not for some heinous offense, Dane Cook is just fine if you want to cancel him. “Canceling is good for business, as long as you’re not being canceled for something that is truly like, bad, in a legal sense,” the comedian told Distractify.

“When people get canceled, it’s a lot of hullabaloo, it’s usually a lot of innuendo and it’s kind of blown out of proportion,” he continued. “I see more comics get canceled, and then they go on to have sold-out tours."

Hard to argue with Cook there. Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais and Louis C.K., to name a few of the most criticized comics of the past decade, continue to sell out large venues. Maybe comedians like Cook should stake out more controversial positions? “I think that as rabble-rousers, we’re supposed to be a little persnickety, and we’re supposed to jab at things, and we’re supposed to kind of be brats and you know, all those things are actually good for the business of comedy.”

But Cook isn’t necessarily consistent on how getting canceled might help his personal comedy business. “I’m glad nobody was filming my shows in 1995 because that’s some footage that I don’t think would have stood the test of time.” But by his earlier logic, that footage might help him sell tickets today.

That inconsistency continues in Cook’s assessment of the Tenacious D controversy from earlier this month. At a concert in Sydney, Australia, Kyle Gass was asked to make a wish, then joked, “Don’t miss Trump next time.” The ad-libbed line, certainly in bad taste, caused Jack Black to cancel the Tenacious D tour and place “all future creative plans” on hold. Gass’ joke passes Cook’s litmus test as not “truly bad in the legal sense,” but Cook says the comic-musician got the (temporary?) cancelation he deserved. 

If comedy equals tragedy plus time, Cook figures Gass didn’t respect the second part of that equation. “I thought that the timing was wrong on that,” Cook said. “People are still entrenched in the terrible loss that was experienced. It doesn’t mean that people don’t want to go and find humor. We all want to escape that feeling of grief, fear and sorrow. So comedy is good for that in real time, but for some things, you have to take a beat.”

Maybe that’s why Cook laid low for a while after all those joke-theft accusations in the 2000s? That was its own kind of cancelation, at least within the comedy community. 

After working through those allegations on Louie, Cook has been slowly working his way back into the comedy mainstream, including his current Fresh New Flavor tour. “I think it’s imperative that everybody gets a chance to say, ‘I saw the error in my ways. I want to put an asterisk on myself. I’d like to update what I said. I feel ignorant,’” Cook explained. “Everybody deserves that moment.”