A Chinese stand-up comedian who goes by the name “House” has been fined $2 million for a joke he made which was deemed to take a mocking stance toward the ironically named People’s Liberation Army. Here’s the joke that got him fined:

During the show, he began a skit about how he had adopted two stray dogs since moving to Shanghai.

He went on to say that their chase after a squirrel one day reminded him of eight words, before he unleashed the controversial punchline, according to audio posted to Chinese social media site Weibo.

“Fine style of work, capable of winning battles,” he said, flipping a well known Chinese Communist Party slogan referring to the PLA.

Here’s audio of the joke. You can hear the audience laugh in response.

📢 AUDIO This is the excerpt from Li Haoshi's monologue in #Beijing that led to a RMB14.7 million fine at the company he worked for and his firing. pic.twitter.com/ngUy6o6qZu

— Roger Vicente (@rogerVcente) May 17, 2023

So what’s the big deal here? Well the phrase in question, alternatively translated as “excellent conduct and can win the battle” is a reference to a phrase Xi Jinping used as his requirements for the PLA. Jennifer Zeng tweeted “During the military parade celebrating the 90th anniversary of the founding of PLA, when Xi Jinping rode in the field inspection vehicle past the reviewing stand, the soldiers in formation shouted in unison: ‘Follow the Party’s command, capable of winning battles, with excellent conduct!'” Also, the reference to stray dogs is apparently a common insult in China.

So “House” didn’t just insult the military, he mocked the dear leader. And here’s where all of this begins to sound somewhat familiar. According to the Guardian one person in the crowd reported the comedian and that led to the fine for an illegal joke.

…a member of the audience reportedly made a complaint, and as the joke spread on to the less humorous world of the Chinese internet, Li was criticised for what many interpreted as a disrespectful comment about China’s military…

China’s ministry of culture and tourism bureau said on Wednesday that the company must pay a fine of 13.35m yuan, and also forfeit 1.35m yuan in “illegal gains” for the joke.

“We will never allow any company or individual use the Chinese capital as a stage to wantonly slander the glorious image of the PLA,” the bureau said. The authorities also said that the show should have been stopped as soon as the offending joke was made.

Sort of reminds me of the progressive scolds demanding that people like Dave Chappelle be punished for telling certain jokes. All that’s missing here is a groveling apology. Wait, my mistake. House apologized Monday saying, “I will take all the responsibility and call off all my performances to deeply reflect and reeducate myself.” In his case, he’s probably right to grovel because in addition to the fine he’s not under investigation by the police.

When this sort of illegal joke happens in the US there are always a bunch of articles from outlets like Slate and Vox, etc. explaining that some jokes just aren’t funny. And in this case Chinese state media outlets are offering the same sort of explainers. This is from the Global Times which seems to have absorbed all of the lessons of woke comedy criticism.

Stand-up comedy is known as having a lot of satire, where a lot of people or events are joked about; however, these jokes must have limits, even in the US, the home of stand-up comedy.

…stand-up comedy in China also has a red line. It should respect the Chinese audience based on their level of acceptance, and fundamentally, it should honor the social consensus, goodwill and Chinese laws…

Asking audiences to accept the offense is to pass the buck to them, which shows a performer’s inability to make good comedy shows…

If people felt uncomfortable, it means the performer’s jokes deserve reflection.

In China and other countries in the world, some groups can absolutely never be offended or disrespected with words.

It’s tempting to conclude that comedy and authoritarian systems don’t mix. But is there any element of this state media justification for destroying a comedian’s career that hasn’t already been written by an American progressive hoping to cancel Dave Chappelle (or some other comedian)? Here’s Vox back in 2021:

So perhaps the real question is, should trans people have to get over it? “Yes” seems to be the answer from The Closer, more or less. There’s no getting around the reality that transphobic rhetoric like Chappelle’s absolutely contributes to real-life harm. But Chappelle seems to view that hurt, and even the immediate pain of his transphobic jokes, as a worthy trade-off…

Chappelle should know that there’s a possibility his jokes about trans people could be taken the wrong way and used to hurt trans people.

What the incident in China shows is that the urge to censor really has nothing to do with questions about punching up or down. If the PLA, the world’s largest standing army, can be a victim of an illegal joke then no one is safe from the cultural censors. It may start with demands to protect the vulnerable but it ends with protecting those in power from being ridiculed.

The main difference between here and there is that in Chinese censorship to protect the honor of the PLA and Xi Jinping has the backing of the state. In the US, would-be censors are mostly writing long screeds for left-wing media outlets which, thankfully, don’t have the force of law. That allows people with a sense of humor to continue to ignore them.