page_title: Sarah Silverman
section_title: Controversies
hierarchical_section_title: Sarah Silverman / Controversies
caption_attribution_description: Sarah Silverman speaking at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere.
context_page_description: Sarah Kate Silverman is an American stand-up comedian, actress, singer, producer, and writer. Her comedy addresses social taboos and controversial topics, such as racism, sexism, politics, and religion, sometimes having her comic character endorse them in a satirical or deadpan fashion. For her work on television, she has won two Primetime Emmy Awards.
  Silverman was a writer and performer on Saturday Night Live, and she starred in and produced The Sarah Silverman Program, which ran from 2007 to 2010 on Comedy Central, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She released an autobiography The Bedwetter in 2010. She also appeared in other television programs, such as Mr. Show and VIP, and starred in films, including Who's the Caboose?, School of Rock, Wreck-It Ralph, A Million Ways to Die in the West, and Ralph Breaks the Internet. In 2015, she starred in the drama I Smile Back, for which she was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role.
context_section_description: In a July 2001 interview on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Silverman used the ethnic slur "chink" in explaining that a friend advised her to avoid jury duty by writing a racial slur on the selection form, "something inappropriate, like 'I hate chinks.'" Silverman said she decided that she did not want to be thought of as a racist, so "I wrote 'I love chinks' – and who doesn't?" Silverman said the joke satirizes the racist thought process. Guy Aoki of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) objected to her use of the slur. NBC and O'Brien apologized, but Silverman did not. Later, appearing on Politically Incorrect in July and August 2001, Silverman questioned Aoki's sincerity, accusing him of exploiting the opportunity for publicity. On a later episode, Aoki appeared with Silverman and stated he did not accept Silverman's explanation, saying that it was not successful satire and that comedians should consult groups such as his before performing such material. She stated in an NPR Fresh Air interview that she was asked to repeat the joke on Politically Incorrect, among other places, but eventually dropped it from her act because she felt it was becoming stale. Silverman has since turned the complaint into grist for her standup act, saying that the experience helped teach her the important lesson that racism is bad: "And I mean bad, like in that black way."
  A minor controversy arose over Silverman's performance in the documentary film The Aristocrats (2005). The film shows her doing the Aristocrats joke – a sample of transgressive art told by numerous comedians since the vaudeville era – like it was an autobiographical account of her life as a child sex performer.  As part of the routine, she mentioned that Joe Franklin, a long-time New York radio and TV personality, would ask her to perform privately for him in his apartment, and as the punchline, deadpanned that "Joe Franklin raped me." After the film's release, Franklin took offense at Silverman's using his name in the routine and considered suing her. A month later, The New York Times noted he remained undecided but had said, "The best thing I could do is get Sarah better writers so she'd have funnier material."
  In a 2007 episode of The Sarah Silverman Show, Silverman played a character in a sketch who wore blackface and remarked "I look like the beautiful Queen Latifah." On a 2019 episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, Silverman revealed that the sketch had caused her to be fired from an unnamed movie.
caption: Silverman at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con International
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