Billy Crystal says comedy in the age of cancel culture is 'becoming a minefield' — and the woke mob lines up to blast him

 Iconic actor and comedian Billy Crystal — now 73 — might pass for just a tad curmudgeonly when it comes to the state of comedy in the age of cancel culture.

"It's becoming a minefield, and I get it," Crystal told the New York Post. "I don't like it; I understand it … I just keep doing what I'm doing, and that's all you can do right now."

The paper added that Crystal admitted with a laugh that "it's a totally different world [now], and it doesn't mean you have to like it."

The woke mob claims a new victim

Uh oh. You can just hear the woke mob's giant engine revving up, can't you?

Yup. Not surprisingly, leftists were not kind to Crystal once they caught a whiff of his latter assessment, the Huffington Post pointed out:

• "The most shocking part of this story is Billy Crystal thinking he's a relevant voice in comedy in 2021," one Twitter user said.
• "That just means Billy Crystal is not really funny," another commenter noted. "People are raising their standards."
• "Yeah alright, let's agree with the old white guy who's never felt oppressed in his life," another user said.
• "Always ancient rich comics like Billy Crystal who think comedy is becoming a minefield," another commenter wrote. "They don't understand that they've [just] grown old and out of touch."
• "The fact that comedians are so upset they can't be so easily racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic or xenophobic speaks volumes and says more about them personally than it does about society for changing," another user said. "It's not 'cancel culture': it's CONSEQUENCE culture."

Another commenter responded, "No, Billy Crystal, comedy isn't a 'minefield.' You're just mad you can't do blackface anymore."

Crystal donned blackface in a sketch for the 2012 Oscars featuring his impersonation of Sammy Davis Jr., whom he had impersonated on other occasions going back decades. And even though Davis' daughter said at the time she was "100 percent certain that my father is smiling" over Crystal's impersonation of her dad, the Oscars haven't had Crystal back as host since.

As it happens, the Post asked Crystal if he watched this year's Oscars — and he offered a quip that arguably shuts down his aforementioned bed-wetting critics.

"Were they on?" Crystal replied.

Anything else?

The paper also interviewed Crystal about his new movie "Here Today," which employs the subject of changing comedic tastes — although that's far from its only theme.

Crystal, who also directed the movie, plays longtime comedy writer Charlie Burnz who battles dementia and strikes up an unexpected yet touching friendship with singer Emma Payge (Tiffany Haddish), the paper said.

He told the Post that the idea for the movie came from a relative battling dementia who he was taking care of: "She described to me, so painfully, 'I'm losing my words,' and she was scared."

But Crystal noted that it's the friendship between the two main characters that's most important — particularly as our world becomes more divided and angry, the paper said.

"That's something that we really need more of, the country, and that is empathy, and that's what I think is the beautiful part of this friendship," he noted to the Post. "She gives up a chance for her career to move forward to take care of him. And I think that's a beautiful thing."

Here's the trailer for "Here Today":

(H/T: Rebel News)