I can almost guarantee that you are stressed out about something right now. Whether it’s classes, money or relationships, we all have struggles. But there’s always one thing that we rely on to make ourselves feel better: comedy.

Every time a comedian mentions how important they are to modern society, I cringe. While they claim to be philosophers, they are actually closer to sock puppets that bored rich people play with. That being said, I do believe comedy has merits.

I know that comedy has personally helped me through some dark times in my life, and it is important to find something to laugh at. However, comedy seems sparse in diversity nowadays, and not demographically.

It feels like every comedian talks for a full hour about how silenced they are during a segment that is funded by multiple production companies. Comedians seem to think that “challenging the status quo” is trying to annoy as many people as possible, like first graders repeating the same insults on the playground. The current state of comedy is bleak to say the least.

Comedians have become less focused on telling jokes, and more focused on making women feel the need to cover their drinks when they come around. Also, why do all comedians have podcasts? Is it because they got used to being the only person laughing at their own jokes, so they got rid of the audience? Or is it because they’re insecure about being unimportant, they decide to pretend to be journalists?

I would be the last person to say that comedy is dead, as there are plenty of comedians that know what they are doing, and are able to do it well. But it is hard to stay entirely optimistic about the state of comedy when most of the comedians I thought knew better sold their souls to perform at the Riyadh Comedy Festival sponsored by the Saudi Arabian government.

Comedy is starting to feel more like an unethical business practice rather than a form of entertainment with every day that passes. Yet knowing that there are still comedians that just want to be funny makes me feel that there is still a chance comedy can have a good effect. We just need to stop selling podcast mics to anyone that has stepped foot in a comedy club once.