I agree that the primary job of a comedian is to make people laugh which, strangely enough, is not something you seem to have addressed at all. He has had many, many fans over the years, which is presumably why you feel the need to write about his tweet rather than all the other bad tweets out there. The fact that 2 mentions laughter in his tweet, shows that he does consider it an important part of being a comedian. If we took your list of other professions and put them in there, it would be very odd to follow that up with a statement on laughter.
Even in your interpretation of the tweet, I don't think he's completely wrong either, professional comics that make social commentary are also useful. I would actually suggest that's what most comedians do these days, particularly with TV shows like the Daily Show and Last Week Tonight. They're meant to be funny but also informative and push a particular agenda. There is also the possibility that he is extending the definition away from its given form, such as when people say "the furry fandom is about creativity and acceptance." That's also not strictly true as a definition of furry but it's a sort of expansion into how they might imagine an idealised community.
In the end, this isn't so much an opinion piece as a personal attack on 2 which seems to have little relevance. Not only is the focus on a tweet which is now almost a year old but whether he calls himself a comedian or not matters little in the grand scheme of things.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
I agree that the primary job of a comedian is to make people laugh which, strangely enough, is not something you seem to have addressed at all. He has had many, many fans over the years, which is presumably why you feel the need to write about his tweet rather than all the other bad tweets out there. The fact that 2 mentions laughter in his tweet, shows that he does consider it an important part of being a comedian. If we took your list of other professions and put them in there, it would be very odd to follow that up with a statement on laughter.
Even in your interpretation of the tweet, I don't think he's completely wrong either, professional comics that make social commentary are also useful. I would actually suggest that's what most comedians do these days, particularly with TV shows like the Daily Show and Last Week Tonight. They're meant to be funny but also informative and push a particular agenda. There is also the possibility that he is extending the definition away from its given form, such as when people say "the furry fandom is about creativity and acceptance." That's also not strictly true as a definition of furry but it's a sort of expansion into how they might imagine an idealised community.
In the end, this isn't so much an opinion piece as a personal attack on 2 which seems to have little relevance. Not only is the focus on a tweet which is now almost a year old but whether he calls himself a comedian or not matters little in the grand scheme of things.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~