BURSTComedian Nikki Glaser says she went from being too "angry" to tell political jokes to being too fearful.
"I'm at the point now that if I don't say something political, it's because I'm scared to, not because I'm like, I don't think I have a right to do that," Glaser said Sunday at the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor ceremony at the Kennedy Center in Washington.
"It's now like I missed that moment where I could say stuff because I had a point of view and I felt safe speaking to that. And I totally missed that," Glaser, who hosted the Golden Globes in January, said.
"I went from being like, 'I don't want to talk about politics because I don't want to alienate anyone,' to like, 'I want to talk about it but now I'm scared to.' And that's just that's a s‑‑‑ty place to be," the 40-year-old comic said.
Asked what she's scared of, Glaser replied, "Of getting on some sort of list because I spoke in opposition to the powers-that-be. Who wouldn't be? I'm not stupid. I see how this stuff works."
"But I'm just joking," she said of any future political barbs. "Everything I say is a joke. I'm a comedian," she said.
Glaser's remarks about the current political climate for comedians came after ITK questioned whether she still considers herself "too angry" to perform wisecracks related to politics.
“I don’t do any political jokes. I just steer away from it,” she told ITK last year.
"If I get too angry, sometimes it can be funny, but it’s like I’m too angry to be funny and people can sense that. It turns you off when you’re watching someone just like rage and lose control," she said at the time.