Moshe Kasher calls himself the Phil Donahue of the Internet age. His Comedy Central series “Problematic with Moshe Kasher,” which wraps up its first season next Tuesday, follows a single topic each week that tackles something triggering outrage online. Kasher and his panelists, plus the show’s studio and online audience, find a way to take on heady subjects like Islamophobia and cultural appropriation.
Kasher is looking to have an honest dialogue, in a world that seems to thrive on the exact opposite. That first episode on cultural appropriation, for example, “was a big loud swing,” he said, and it got “people’s outrage juice flowing. The alt-right went apoplectic in a hilarious, lovely way. They lost their shit. Which was funny, the conversation is pretty balanced!”
IndieWire’s Steve Greene spoke with Kasher about the series, and the guiding principle of the show, which is “there are no conversations that shouldn’t be had.”
Listen below!
Kasher, whose credits include serving as co-executive producer of Comedy Central’s “Another Period,” said he believed comedy was a “great equalizer for these kinds of conversations.”
And it’s not just the alt-right he’s pissing off; another episode gave a liberal’s case for guns.
“I haven’t looked at an internet comment about the show since the show came out,” he said. “You can only make the show you want to make. The problem is we are as bifurcated as we’ve ever been.”
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