Mel Brooks: "Comedy has to be outrageous. It has to be the jester whispering the most salacious things about that dancing girl into the king's ear. You know? That's what it is. It's all about the truth. What's going on in life? What you want to have go on. We did that. When we were writing  [Blazing Saddles], I said 'write everything that's deep and dark in you, that you've always wanted to say.' This was the other writers I was talking to. I said, 'It's never going to get made. It's not gonna get made. Warner Bros is not gonna make this movie, you know? So I said, 'Let's say everything.'"He continued. "I had Richard Pryor writing it with me right at my side. And I used to say to Rich, 'Can I use the N word here?' He said, 'Absolutely.' 'Rich, what about there?' I said, 'Richard, I'm talking to Harvey, and I'm calling him the N word. That's wrong. He's, you know, Harvey Korman, you know? He's Hedley Lamarr. He's like my assistant. He's white. I can't.' He said, 'Call him the N word.' Richard said, 'Call everybody the N word.'"

One way of viewing comedy is that it's rooted in the tragedy of everyday life. In fact, an old saying goes, "Comedy is tragedy plus time." It's a way for us humans to laugh at things that are in every other context treated as serious business, but become absurd to the point of a giggle when you analyze it at any length because it is absurd, and we'd rather laugh about it than cry. However, another perspective of comedy is that it's based in mockery and making a mockery of its subjects. And whether someone is laughing with or laughing at someone or something makes all the difference in the world.

For those that view it as being more of the latter, there are some topics where the determination of whether or not the jokes are appropriate become an equation based on the background of the teller, whether the background is one of privilege, and whether there are unfortunate implications notwithstanding the comedian's intent. Following this line of thinking out to its logical conclusion, the result is an argument which posits that if we as a society have decided white people doing blackface is just not something that can be appropriate under any context anymore, shouldn't we treat jokes rooted in humor about minorities the same way?

This debate has flared up from time to time in past years, with Patton Oswalt, Chris Rock, and Jerry Seinfeld claiming comedians can't really say what they want to say anymore. The internet has made it so that something controversial won’t be forgotten. A video of it will show up on YouTube, leading to arguments that it's used to censor any material a group of sufficient number doesn't feel is appropriate. When Trevor Noah was chosen as Jon Stewart’s replacement as host of The Daily Show, his prior tweets became a focus of whether or not they were offensive to the point of disqualifying him from having the job.

From Wesley Morris at The New York Times:

The flap over his language transpired during a weekend of more terrorism in London, and at the end of a week in which a racist spray-painted a slur on a LeBron James home in Los Angeles; and Portland, Ore., braced itself for a white supremacist rally. Mr. Maher’s incident seems fit for the basket labeled “Life’s too short.”

He didn’t commit a hate crime. He overstepped his privilege as a famous comedian. That’s all. But if he crossed a line, it’s one that, for white people, has never moved … [Maher] has compared his dog to developmentally disabled children. He has questioned vaccines and claimed that Islam “has too much in common with ISIS.” After the Sept. 11 attacks, he wondered, on his old late-night ABC program, “Politically Incorrect,” about the nature of bravery, comparing the terrorists’ suicide mission to American missiles, which he saw as a hands-off “cowardly” approach. Advertisers pulled their spots, and the network suspended the broadcast. (It was canceled the next year.)

In the end, what it really comes down to is whether one trusts the person telling the joke (or any other type of comment for that matter) is doing it from a good place. This is why the reaction to some of the president’s words and statements can’t be just washed away as being off the cuff, or “locker room talk.” And maybe it’s part of the reason the hammer has come down so hard on Maher, given his past comments about Muslims as well as a perception of arrogance and smugness that lends itself to elitism. 

For some people, hearing those words or seeing the stereotypes has to be grating and very essence of "not funny." Far too often, saying dumb shit just to provoke a reaction has been equated with comedy because dumb people laugh at it. However, that in and of itself is not a reason for why certain aspects of life, and the differences we create among us, need to be walled off from commentary or humor. For at least some of us, there are certain people given a pass to say things that would be offensive if said by a stranger, even in joke form.

Whether that's right or wrong is I guess something that will be an evolving debate for society, which in its own way sets limits and norms.

However, to say our cultural idiosyncrasies can't be a source of humor is not logical, especially the cultural idiosyncrasies and differences which make no sense whatsoever. Because sometimes we have to laugh at the absurd things to realize they're absurd. 

"Friday nights are always my worst night of sleep because I’m up reflecting on the things I should or shouldn’t have said on my live show," Maher said in his apology statement. "[Friday] was a particularly long night as I regret the word I used in the banter of a live moment. The word was offensive and I regret saying it and am very sorry."