Charlie McCarthyism defeated in our lifetime?

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on May 21st, 2006

The saga limps along.

We’re beginning to think we’re witnessing the end of the experiment in terror known variously as the Comedy Police, the Supreme Court of Comedy or the Comedy National Guard.

Those were the names of the three Myspace tumors that briefly flared up, then collapsed this past week. All three proposed to “police” the standup comedy community, all three seemingly were produced by the same person and all three operated anonymously.

The Supreme Court of Comedy is, according to Myspace, officially suspended. The National Guard is stuck at around 13 friends. And the Comedy Police profile is hemorrhaging friends at a prodigious rate (down to 48 from a high near 120). The Comedy Police site claims to have been suspended. This is odd, since the proprietor of that space continues to use the space to squawk about “free speech” and censorship and, as of this writing, is directing visitors to a blog at another location, where the bile continues to ooze (although it has remained unchanged for nearly four days… an eternity in blogdom).

In a related story, there are rumors floating around as to the true identity of the weasel that dreamed up the idea. We’re reluctant to divulge the name or names being batted around. There’s no sense in harming someone unless we know with some degree of certainty who is doing what. But at least one object of those rumors has already been damaged and is furiously denying any direct involvement in the whole sordid mess.

Well, what did we expect?

The caterwauling about free speech and censorship rings hollow. Anyone who hides behind a cloak of secrecy in order to savage the work and reputation of others has no legitimate claim to free speech. And anyone who supports such dispicable methods shouldn’t be surprised when he or she finds it difficult to escape the stench.

We urge the self-appointed comedy vigilante to either cease operations altogether or identify him/herself. The benefits to owning up to the opinions expressed would be manifold, but two would be immediate:

The owner of the opinions could then take the lumps that can and should be a necessary part of such opining.

and

The heat would be off of those who are perhaps falsely accused of being the perpetrator.

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