Sarah Silverman says she's 'horrified' by her old blackface sketch but 'not all comedy is evergreen'

By KELBY VERA FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Published: | Updated:

She made her mark with her off-color style of comedy. 

But Sarah Silverman admitted that looking back she's 'horrified' by some of her earlier work, opening up about her past mistakes in an intimate profile for GQ's Comedy Issue this month.

Talking about a particularly offensive episode of The Sarah Silverman Show in 2007 where she donned black face, the star, 47, said that she doesn't 'stand by the sketch,' but 'Comedy by nature is not at all evergreen [and] if you're doing it right, you look back at your old stuff and you're horrified.' 

'Looking back': Sarah Silverman admitted she was 'horrified' by an old sketch where she wore blackface in a new interview for GQ but says if 'you're doing [comedy]  right, you look back... and you're horrified'

'Looking back': Sarah Silverman admitted she was 'horrified' by an old sketch where she wore blackface in a new interview for GQ but says if 'you're doing [comedy]  right, you look back... and you're horrified'

Sarah made it very clear that she's appalled by the gag but didn't do much more to repent, saying: 'I can't erase it. I can only be changed by it and move on.'

Asked if there was any push-back at the time, the stand-up revealed it she actually got the opposite reaction.

'I was praised for it! It made me famous!' she said, 'It was like, I'm playing a character, and I know this is wrong, so I can say it. I'm clearly liberal.'

'That was such liberal-bubble stuff, where I actually thought it was dealing with racism by using racism.

Putting it behind her... Sarah made it very clear that she's appalled by the gag (above) but reasoned: ' I can't erase it. I can only be changed by it and move on'

Putting it behind her... Sarah made it very clear that she's appalled by the gag (above) but reasoned: ' I can't erase it. I can only be changed by it and move on'

Oh: Asked if there was any push-back at the time, the stand-up revealed it she actually got the opposite reaction, saying: 'I was praised for it! It made me famous!'

Oh: Asked if there was any push-back at the time, the stand-up revealed it she actually got the opposite reaction, saying: 'I was praised for it! It made me famous!'

Asked if she's changed, she said: 'I don't get joy in that anymore. It makes me feel yucky. All I can say is that I'm not that person anymore.'

Sarah continued:  'I'm just fundamentally different. You have to take a chance and go with where you are and what is funny to you now. 

She also said a pressure for successful comics to stay fresh can make people 'caricatures of themselves' and go over the line.

'When comics really establish a thing and they get famous for it, a lot of them are really terrified to change. Then they become caricatures of themselves...'

Pushing the limit: She also said a pressure for successful comics to stay fresh can make people 'caricatures of themselves' and go over the line. Above Sarah performs in April

Pushing the limit: She also said a pressure for successful comics to stay fresh can make people 'caricatures of themselves' and go over the line. Above Sarah performs in April

'And it can't be who they still are. It's a risk you have to take, or it's just gonna end up being embarrassing.'

This isn't the first time Silverman's renounced the offensive sketch.

During a visit to Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in 2015 she called it her most 'regrettable joke', but still defended the sketch as 'great' and said the criticism was 'taken out of context.'

'Regrettable': Sarah called the blackface bit her most 'regrettable joke' during a 2015 visit to Andy Cohen's Watch What Happens Live, above

'Regrettable': Sarah called the blackface bit her most 'regrettable joke' during a 2015 visit to Andy Cohen's Watch What Happens Live, above

'It’s great, but there’s a still of me on Twitter in blackface and it’s totally out of context and I tweeted it when Twitter was new and the people who followed me watched that show and it was from that show,” Silverman concluded. 

'Now it’s forever there and it looks … it’s totally racist out of context and I regret that.'

Season two of Sarah's series I Love You, America premieres September 6 2018.

Back in action! Season two of Sarah's series I Love You, America premieres September 6 2018

Back in action! Season two of Sarah's series I Love You, America premieres September 6 2018

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