Generalizations are the rule in an opinion piece by Ted Sherman, entitled “Surprise!! “Kramer” Not Alone In Smut Standup Spotlight” (We’d link to it, but the website has an annoying habit of sending the reader to “pop-under” ads and other pages without consent.):

Have you seen stand-up lately? I watch it often. I visited a major comedy club in Las Vegas recently, and although every one of the stand-up routines was mildly to totally obscene, a requirement in Sin City, one guy spent his entire time on stage saying the worst racial, sexual and toilet curse words he could spit out.

No jokes. No punchlines. No humor. Just locker-room obscenities. And the audience laughed, screamed and applauded, including black couples and, seated right next to me, a group of well-dressed matrons. That comedian’s ancestors were Oriental, but on any night in any comedy club in America, anyone of any racial background could have been spouting the same obscenities. “Kramer” is not alone on today’s dirty stand-up stages.

No jokes? No punchlines? No humor? We find it hard to believe that Mr. Sherman encountered a comedian onstage in Vegas who had no jokes, no punchlines, no humor. If, as he says, he watches comedy often, he would know that a comedian doesn’t play Vegas (even the smaller rooms) without having those prerequisites. Perhaps Mr. Sherman was confused. Perhaps he accidentally stumbled into an AA meeting. Or he’s lying about the “major” part of his description of the comedy club.

Did he say Oriental?

Sure wished Mr. Sherman had named the club specifically. We know that when we’ve performed at the Comedy Club at the Riv, the preference of management has been to keep it on the the PG side of the line. And we’ve kept it there. And the other clubs we’ve performed at in Vegas have had that same request.

The larger issue, however, is that Sherman (and publications like National Ledger) will continue to use the Michael Richards thing to say the most damaging things about standup in general. (Sherman even takes the occasion to dredge up “The Aristocrats”!)

Get used to it, folks. Once in a great while, amid the vast, varied tapestry that is live standup in 21st century North America, one comic will say or do something outrageous and this will be seized upon as indicative of the entire business. Ignoring dozens of smart, clever, prolific comedians, the same stereotype will surface again and again.

In his parting paragraph, Sherman implores Richards to cease with the apologies, and that…

…Many other toilet-mouthed comedians are on stage with you in spirit. Unfortunately, there’s no indication of the slime ever being flushed away by genuine humor, good taste, respect, basic decency and common sense.

No indication, of course, if you ignore Brian Regan, Todd Barry, Emo Philips, Steven Wright, Paula Poundstone, Jim Gaffigan…

Sherman is described as “a retired corporate PR manager and executive speech writer. Today he’s a humor and travel writer, and occasional contributor of jokes to a major TV comedy show. He’s a graduate of the University of the Arts and the University of Penn Grad. School of Communications, and a US Navy veteran of WWII and the Korean War.” So, I suppose you could say that his excuse for being so horribly wrong is that he’s… horribly old? (Actually, The Male Half’s old man was a WWII vet and, even after seeing Joy Behar say “fuck&quot about 18 times onstage at a show at the Comedy Stop at the Tropicana, circa 1986, he would never have dreamed of describing her as “toilet-mouthed slime.” So, no, being ancient is no excuse for lacking the ability to think critically.)

One must wonder how Sherman’s moaning got past the editors of the National Ledger, though. They describe themselves as a publication that “wishes to provoke old-fashioned independent critical thinking with our presentation of news stories, commentary and external links that reside within these pages.”

Old-fashioned? Definitely. Independent or critical? No. Not at all.