00:00Stand-up comic Mike Ward made fun of a boy who lives with a rare genetic disorder.
00:04Comedian Mike Ward has been ordered by the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal to pay $35,000 to Jérémie Gabriel.
00:12Here's the thing, if you hadn't heard, I got sued by my government and I lost.
00:18His family then filed a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal and it ruled against Ward.
00:23What I do is dark humor, like I'm not Ray Romano, right?
00:31I'm a fan of dark humor because of how uncomfortable you are laughing at a really ugly, horrible joke.
00:38And in the case of Ward, he used my disability to make money on this joke.
00:43And I didn't profit of any of that.
00:51I get like crazy hate mail and I was like, God damn, people really hate me.
00:55It's really easy to say that. Well, you have to live with it.
00:58Well, are you the one who receives this kind of messages? Are you the one exposed to all this hatred?
01:05$35,000, what's that going to pay? He's become the center of a debate that should have never happened in
01:09the first place.
01:10Well, there certainly is a limit to freedom of expression in Canada.
01:13He was being funny because he was pointing out something ridiculous that was going on with celebrity and the media.
01:20No one has a right not to be offended.
01:23And that's the true genius is to take something that's so taboo and to make it funny.
01:28And the funnier you can make it is a testament to how great you are as a comic.
01:32If I navigate in the currency of outrage, of victimology, then everything becomes an assault on me.
01:39Comics shouldn't have to go to court for jokes, but I was like, okay.
01:42I think that when you are entering public life, you have the right to be protected from discrimination.
01:48Like Dave Chappelle made a special, sticks and stones, it's words.
01:52Nobody can offend me with words.
01:55You cannot set rules for comedians.
01:58The human condition is what they talk about and what they joke about.
02:02And the human condition, it includes kids.
02:04If we set rules, if we muzzle those, those who say the offensive, then what's inoffensive today becomes offensive tomorrow.
02:14But I feel to keep people silent and to not let them to express, I think sometimes you have to
02:19say the hung shit to know what is the high shit.
02:22I believe in what I'm saying.
02:24I believe in what I'm standing for.
02:27Because at the end of the day, I truly believe that what I'm doing, artistically, is right.
02:33And I believe that in the end, when it's all said and done, it'll be rewarded.
02:46My favorite curse word.
02:47Well, I hope you don't put it in.
02:48But sometimes I just want to say, what the f***?
02:50I hope you don't put it in.
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