Too Soon

Too Soon: Comedy After 9/11 is an excellent documentary about comedy just after September 11, 2001. There’s the adage “Comedy equals tragedy plus time” which is pretty much the Onion’s operating principle but we basically skip the time part. Comedians that genuinely wanted to do the right thing took cues from each other (including Letterman’s 09/17 return) on how to navigate the very challenging new territory in the midst of intimidation and threats of violence. The comment that Bill Maher lost his job over: We have been the cowards. Lobbing cruise missiles from 2000 miles away. That’s cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building. Say what you want about it. Not cowardly. …was followed by the White House press secretary delivering the warning: all Americans…that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do. This is not a time for remarks like that; there never is. Although not included in the documentary, it seems the press secretary strangely wrote a letter to…