Hari Kondabolu is a Brooklyn-based, Queens-raised comedian who just released the critically-acclaimed album, Waiting for 2042. He's appeared on Conan, Jimmy Kimmel, Comedy Central, Russell Howard's Good News, and was a writer for FX's Totally Biased with W Kamau Bell. His album is available on iTunes, Bandcamp,or on CD.

Hari spoke to me by phone the other day from Seattle about rape jokes, how to deal with haters and more.

JESSICA VALENTI: I listened to your interview with Terry Gross, which was terrific. You talked about your move from organizer to full-time comedian. Do you feel a sense of responsibility with your comedy, to talk about social justice issues?



HARI KONDABOLU: I don't feel a sense of responsibility to talk about anything to be honest, but it is who I am. This is the kind of work that I've always been interested in ... so why wouldn't I talk about the things I'm interested in? I think the "responsibility" part is in perhaps how I talk about the things I talk about – a certain extra care with the words I use. I'm not a politician, I'm not an ideologue, I'm not an organizer anymore. I'm a human being sharing ideas, and those ideas have to feel fresh and from my heart, and my head, and I have to feel it. You can't force that feeling.

I think probably the first time I saw your standup was a YouTube clip of your female president joke. Can you talk a little bit about how feminism plays a role in your work?

I do have a few pieces about feminism, but I think my biggest contribution is being conscious of the words I'm using – and trying not to be an asshole. It's unfortunate that this is still something that is given cookies. Like, "here's your prize ... for not being an asshole." I try to be as thoughtful as I can about everything that comes out of my mouth and not reinforce sexism.

Over the last year or so, there's been this controversy over rape jokes, and I know that you're friends with Lindy West, who has written a lot about this. Do you think the conversation is moving forward in a progressive way?

It's part of a larger conversation about responsibility and the freedom of speech, right? Freedom of speech is essential and, of course, people can say whatever they want to say. But this conversation is not about the legal right to say what you want, but about duty and responsibility. The words we use have weight. Whether it's in a conversation with a friend, or something said publicly on stage, or broadcast. And as performers, we know that, because that's why we choose the words we use - that's the whole point of comedy. We use the words we think will make the maximum impact and hopefully get the most possible laughs.

So it's weird when we defend our statements with "it's just a joke" or "it's just words". You're making creative decisions to convey various points and paint various images for an audience. That's powerful and amazing. And this audience might not like what you're saying, and that's OK. You're gonna get some feedback, and it might not all be what you like to hear. That's OK. You're an artist, and every piece of art is critiqued. If you really believe in your work, you'll defend it or reconsider your point of view and create something new that might address it. Our points of view are allowed to evolve. That's not weak – that's being human.



And certainly what Lindy did was really brave and had an incredible impact. Even if it doesn't necessarily change the point of view of folks who choose to perhaps tell rape jokes in an irresponsible or thoughtless way, it empowered a lot of comics who agree with her. And they will create incredible new work that will shift the conversation further. Ultimately, the artists have the control, not the critics.

So how do you deal with hecklers? Not in the moment, necessarily, but in life? Like doing feminist work, the emotional toll that it takes to get hate mail and hate comments all the time – it's a lot. And I'm just wondering if it's a similar sort of thing, getting heckled.

I can deal with drunk idiots and insecure attention-seekers. (To be fair, we comics could also fit into either of those categories.) If we're talking about violent, angry people, hopefully the club or venue will escort them out. I've also been increasingly getting hate mail after my appearances on NPR and Letterman and with the release of my new album. That's actually been useful, because I can just read it on stage. That's the great part of what I get to do: everything can be used as material. It's the only situation when other people are writing the jokes for me.

We did the same thing at Feministing, when we started to get hate-mail. We started a series called Anti-Feminist Mailbag. For us it was a way to take back a little bit of that power, but also to show that this is what you get when you speak your mind – I don't think people understand how bad those emails can get!

And some of them are really scary, too. It's frightening, but it's also like, I must be doing my job right. This is the kind of thing I hope does piss you off because this is what I actually believe and I don't want to agree with you.

At the same time, I do feel optimistic. I do feel things are getting better. I think there is progress. That Totally Biased, even though we weren't long very long, was around for a year and a half – I mean, that's a sign of progress! And the folks who came out of that show, I feel like we're all going to go on to do something special,. We all represent voices that come from various activist backgrounds, progressive educations, and we have a set of values that I don't think mainstream media and mainstream comedy has had before. So to me, that's all signs of progress.