The Cancel Club - Add Whoopi Goldberg To The Cancel Culture Cornfield?
Star Trek's Guinan & Moderator On The View Now May Be Cancel Cultured
People ask: Is Cancel Culture real? Ask different people and of course it’s likely you’ll get wildly different answers. It’s a creation of the right. It’s the cultural cudgel of the left. Social media is the central cause of it all. And ever onward…
These days an important member of the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast family is going through a personal experience with this curiously modern phenomenon. Ask legendary stand-up comedian, Oscar Winner (Ghost) and Ten Forward barkeep on Captain Picard’s Starship Enterprise, Whoopi Goldberg, about the real risk of her being cancelled and you’ll undoubtedly get a very passionate reply.
Wait a subspace second here. Whoopi Goldberg, a near cultural institution, and true Hollywood icon will be cancelled? Really now? But, honestly, do any of us really know what it’s all about?
What exactly is Cancel Culture?
From the Wikipedia:
Cancel culture or call-out culture is a modern form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles – whether it be online, on social media, or in person. Those subject to this ostracism are said to have been "cancelled". The expression "cancel culture" has mostly negative connotations and is used in debates on free speech and censorship.
The notion of cancel culture is a variant on the term call-out culture and constitutes a form of boycotting or shunning involving an individual (often a celebrity) who is deemed to have acted or spoken in an unacceptable manner.
If Whoopi is to succumb to this odd little pile on, she’s got some bright luminaries to keep her company in the cornfield.
After Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling, angered some over her view on trans people, it’s said Rowling was essentially cancelled. Wil Wheaton, another Next Generation star, was similarly dismissed after a run in with keen cultural warriors. Perhaps the most famous cancel culture casualty is Whoopi’s fellow comedian, Roseanne, whose over the top jokes and support of Donald Trump caused her to lose the reboot of her sitcom and dismissal into now increasing obscurity.
So, what exactly happened?
On ABC’s The View, Goldberg was discussing book banning - specifically the banning of a holocaust theme graphic novel entitled, Maus. The discussion got heated, which is nothing unusual for this decades old controversial chat fest. Whoopi then declared that the Holocaust wasn’t about race, but about man’s inhumanity to man.
Red Alert!
Joy Behar chimed in. Anna Navarro put in her 2 critical cents. That’s when things went from heated to overheated - like a warp core going critical into overdrive. Like a phaser set on overload. Before we all knew what hit us collectively, Whoopi got slapped with a 2 week suspension and endured a flurry of lectures from experts and authorities all over the globe on how much she royally fucked up.
The Twilight Zone Cornfield
What’s next for Whoopi? At this stage, it’s anyone’s guess, but one thing could happen, something we’ve seen play out a lot when cancel culture is invoked. It may be her new home is an increasingly crowded cornfield.
In Rod Serling’s classic and unparalleled examination of the outrageously unusual, The Twilight Zone, an episode entitled, It’s A Good Life, introduced us to Anthony Fremont - a little boy with godlike powers. He’s able to do most anything he wants, and does so. Played by Billy Mumy, the story sees a group of townspeople held captive by this little terror with the ultimate price of offending him being sent to a nightmare place called the cornfield.
It’s never spelled out exactly what this place actually is - maybe it’s simply a real cornfield owing to the story’s rural setting - but one thing seems certain: You never come back from there once you’re sent away by the merciless Anthony. His judgment is swift, brutal and absolute and it’s a safe bet one won’t enjoy a career comeback after a trip to the cornfield.
At 66, Whoopi Goldberg is old enough to know what she wants, yet still young enough to have many years left of entertaining us - simply look at Betty White. Nobody who knows anything about her would ever argue that she’s a hater or intended anything hateful in her speech that day on The View.
What may be the most compelling topic of discussion for us is bringing cancel culture names such as Gina Carano of The Mandalorian and Roseanne back into the societal disciplinary equation. Were they undeservedly dismissed by the elite culture gods? Can they ever return from the dread cornfield to be active again in our wacky roller coaster world of newly minted entertainment rules and regulations?
Now the tremendously popular Joe Rogan faces his own dismissal to the cancel culture cornfield after several controversies. He’s apologized, but will it be enough to save him from cornfield imprisonment?
Maybe in the end it’s possible to successfully escape from The Twilight Zone. Maybe when there’s no more room for more to be whisked away into the cultural cornfield, the formerly cancelled will walk the Earth again.
Guardians Of The Galaxy and The Suicide Squad director James Gunn was fired by Marvel for old tweets that someone was able to dig up.and ultimately hired by DC and then rehired by Marvel after his Galaxy mates threatened to leave the MCU.He is proof that you can return from the cornfield--but conservatives in the entertainment biz--are out of luck no matter what.