You cannot punch down. Sure. But if someone is getting fired from their job for making a joke 7 years ago despite repeatedly apologising for it, you might want to rethink where the centre of the power lies. Comedy, by default, is not meant to be taken seriously. Comedy and seriousness are two very different things. Antonyms, actually. If you take your comedy very seriously, maybe you should start taking your atheism religiously. Does it even make sense ?
Everyone is up for freedom of speech but only on their own terms. Everything is a joke until the subject changes to something you deeply care about. After that, they become statements. Comedy was supposed to be against the conventional thinking. “ You cannot say that.” Well that’s why it needs to be said in a joke. Not being able to say things is just a premise. What is the point in going to a room, say things that you know most of the room would agree with anyway and then just drop in an occasional copied joke so that it can be labeled as a comedy show. In order to be called an artist, you need to do the said art and you need to be good at it.
Laughter is as much of an emotion as sadness. Jokes are just an enabler. There is no perfect recipe for it. If someone laughs at dead baby jokes, that’s alright. If someone else laughs at him laughing on dead baby jokes, that’s alright too. You cannot judge…