Jon Stewart and other comedians spoke out about the terrorist attack on the offices of French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo, reminding viewers that freedom of speech should not to be taken for granted.
"I know very few people go into comedy as an act of courage, mainly because it shouldn't have to be that. It shouldn't be an act of courage, it should be taken as established law. But those guys at Hebdo had it and they were killed for their cartoons," Stewart said in a monologue on Wednesday's episode of "The Daily Show."
"A stark reminder that for the most part the legislators and journalists and institutions that we jab and ridicule are not in any way the enemy. For, however frustrating or outraged the back and forth can become, it's still back and forth conversation of those on – let's call it 'Team Civilization' – and this type of violence only clarifies that reality."
Conan O'Brien made similar statements on his TBS show the same night,
the New York Post reported.
He said it, "really hits home for anyone who, day in and day out, mocks political, social, and religious figures. In this country, we just take it for granted that it’s our right to poke fun at the untouchable or the sacred. But today’s tragedy in Paris reminds us, very viscerally, that it’s a right that people are inexplicably forced to die for."
He said the terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices has forced some people to "think twice before making a joke."
"That’s not the way it’s supposed to be," he concluded.
In an interview on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," comedian Bill Maher told the late night host that people shouldn't be afraid to make fun of religion. Maher himself did as much in his 2008 film "Religulous."
"We have to stop saying when something like this that happened in Paris today, we have to stop saying, 'Well, we should not insult a great religion.' First of all, there are no great religions. They’re all stupid and dangerous. And we should insult them and we should be able to insult whatever we want. That is what free speech is like," he explained.
"I know most Muslim people would not have carried out an attack like this. But here’s the important point: hundreds of millions of them support an attack like this. They applaud an attack like this. What they say is, 'We don’t approve of violence, but you know what, when you make fun of the Prophet, all bets are off.'"