“There’s this idea among too many people that there’s these sacred subjects that you can’t joke about,” says Fox News contributor Kat Timpf<\/a>. “And I think that those are actually the most important subjects to be able to joke about because those are the ones that need healing the most.”<\/p>\n

Timpf’s new book, the bestselling You Can’t Joke About That: Why Everything Is Funny, Nothing Is Sacred, and We’re All in This Together<\/em>, is a full-throated defense of free speech and a compelling argument for humor as the best possible coping mechanism. After stints at National Review<\/em>, Barstool Sports<\/em>, and roast chicken purveyor Boston Market, Timpf is now a regular panelist on Gutfeld!<\/em>, America’s most-watched late-night show.<\/p>\n

In June, Reason<\/em>‘s Nick Gillespie talked with Timpf live at the Reason <\/em>Speakeasy in New York about her life as a standup comedian, her career, what it’s like to be a libertarian at Fox News, and how her mother’s untimely death convinced her that humor can be a powerful tool to bring a fragmented country together.<\/p>\n

Reason<\/strong><\/em>: What is it about free speech that you think is basically inviolable?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Timpf: Because if that’s not your principle, then inherently you’re saying that there should be someone else who decides what you can and cannot say. There’s nothing that’s scarier than that.<\/p>\n

It’s not like I’ve never been the target of hateful speech. I get some of the most disgusting stuff directed at me every day, whether it’s mean or deeply kinky sexual from men who, you look at their Instagram and it’s a picture of them with their grandkids. Does your wife know you’re on here, you sick fuck?<\/p>\n

When people say “What about this speech?,” my question to those people always is: “Who would you like to see making that decision?” It drove me nuts throughout the entire Trump presidency, how many people would call for hate speech laws, but then also say that Trump is literally Hitler. So how can you have those two views at the same time? So you want the government to be controlling speech. The same government that you yourself just said, you think the head of the executive branch is literally Hitler. And you don’t see how those two [ideas] don’t make sense together.<\/p>\n