Dan Aykroyd urges comedians not to turn to 'divisive' jokes

Dan Aykroyd believes comedians don’t need to resort to “divisive cards to get a laugh”.

The 69-year-old actor insists comedians needn’t turn to offensive jokes in order to achieve fame and success.

Speaking about so-called cancel culture, Dan explained: “There is enough range in humour where you don’t have to go scatological and you don’t have to go pulling any divisive cards to get a laugh.

“There is so much in the world to comment on that is outside the realm of offensiveness.”

Dan insists comedians can achieve success without resorting to “offensive material”.

The former ‘Saturday Night Live’ star encouraged comedy writers to embrace “intelligent” humour.

He told The Hollywood Reporter: “As a writer, you can go to other areas and have successful creative endeavours. Scatological humour is fun. It’s easy laughs. But there is more intelligent writing that can happen if you stay away from the offensive material that should be rightly cancelled for its hurtfulness.

“Who can be the subject of an impression today? That’s an area of discussion.”

Dan also reflected on how the new comedy landscape might’ve impacted his own career.

He said: “Can I do my James Brown imitation? He was one of my best friends. I do his voice pretty good. But maybe I shouldn’t anymore.”

Meanwhile, Dan previously explained that he’s always tried to treat everyone the same, regardless of their status.

The actor – whose father worked as a policy adviser to former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau – explained: “Treat everyone as you’d want to be treated or better.

“My father had thousands of government employees. He treated everybody – from the road crew to the executives who were cutting the cheques – the same. He was a magnificent man and he was a humanist. I’m descended from spiritualists and the spiritualist community in Lily Dale, New York. It was a great tradition, very tolerant.”