Comic says no more ‘fat’ jokes, or saying ‘the gays’

Comedian Todd Glass has stopped telling “fat people” jokes because he finally realized: “Why are they the dregs of society’ ” who deserve to be picked on?

Glass — who performs tonight through Sunday at Harrah’s Improv — says it’s more than hurtful to make fun of heavy people.

It’s also lazy and hacky because cracking on someone’s weight is a shortcut joke about an obvious feature that might represent that person’s long-term pain.

By contrast, people who engage in joke-worthy behaviors, such as adulterers, can easily hide the pain in their hearts from joke tellers.

“You think that since ‘fat people’ can’t hide it, they’ll be your punching bag?” he said.

Glass, who is gay, has also been saying on “The Todd Glass Show” (on iTunes and Android podcast apps) he wishes comedians would stop using the dehumanizing/otherness phrase “the gays.”

I’m sure some of you are reading this and thinking, “Oh great, now you and this Glass guy are trying to infringe on my free speech rights.”

Nope. We are not.

Glass, 50, (and originally from the tough town of Philadelphia) is kindly asking people (especially comedians who are friends) to rethink the butts of their jokes.

“Somebody once said, ‘How can you do comedy if you’re afraid of offending people?’ ” Glass said.

“They misunderstood me. I don’t care about offending people. Good comedy should offend people sometimes — but offend the right people.”

Glass asks comedians to ask themselves this question:

“Am I punching the right people, or am I punching the people that need desperate help?” he said.

“Don’t waste freedom of speech making fun of people in the Special Olympics.”

I told Glass there’s a similar motto in journalism, coined by writer Finley Peter Dunne: Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

Also, I proclaim that many people are being lazy when they decry this kind of rational humanity as “political correctness.”

Let us be clear. When we don’t use the “N” word, it’s not because it’s the “politically correct” thing to do, it’s because it’s the correct thing to do.

“Right,” Glass said. “It’s like if you called your wife a (very offensive word). And then she said, ‘Can you not call me that?’ And you said, ‘Oh, everyone’s so PC!’ ”

By the way, none of these restrictions make Glass less funny or more preachy onstage. He’s beloved and respected by comics.

He still uses cuss words, and he calls his silly comedy “twisted,” because it is. He’s an absurd comic at times, and he can be quite crass. But this is his bottom line:

“If you’re picking on the right people, your crassness will be OK.”

And if you don’t agree with him or follow his lead, he understands.

“Changing is hard,” says the comic who changed.