When a Comedy Historian Googles “Disgusting Comedian”

Nesteroff strolled past a display of Toscanini’s batons and a manuscript of Mozart’s Symphony No. 32 in G Major, then admired a mid-century pocket handbook from the Mattachine Society. “For this book, I would research without actually having a goal,” he said. “I would just put in quotes, like ‘disgusting comedian.’ That was very effective. Or ‘offensive comedian’ or ‘vulgar comedian’ or ‘immoral comedian’ or ‘disgusting TV show’ or ‘terrible TV show.’ ” This yielded many letters to editors. “So much fun,” he said. “ ‘I’ve never been so offended as on “The Carol Burnett Show” last night, when she made fun of the elderly! I was watching with my grandmother. I will never watch it again.’ ” Nesteroff’s book posits that arguments about oversensitivity and humorlessness around comedy are as old as comedy itself. “People get apocalyptic today about things, and everybody takes it very seriously,” he said. “But I feel like in decades to come it’ll sort of look like those letters do now—like a comical thing.”