Comedian Dana Carvey says many comics are “afraid” of aiming jokes at President Obama, fearing they will be “labeled” for criticizing the first black president.

Carvey, on the other hand, comes from a different school of thought. In a recent interview, he said:

I always grew up with ‘question authority.’ I’m from the old school. You go where the power is and you try to make fun of it. When it becomes off-limits to say or do certain things without being brutalized or censored or whatever, it’s unfortunate.

The Saturday Night Live alum, who has mocked presidents and politicians for decades, said attitudes have shifted in his industry. “If you live in New York or L.A. and you’re liberal and you’re playing to a liberal crowd, it’s almost like a rally — it’s not edgy,” Carvey said.

A self-professed “centrist radical moderate with libertarian strains,” Carvey has come to the defense of his conservative friend Dennis Miller and fellow comedian Jon Lovitz, who criticized Obama back in 2012, as Western Journalism notes.

Carvey said he takes pride in having both conservatives and liberals in the audience at his shows. Which is a far cry from the neighborhood he lives in, of which he said, “where I live… if you have an American flag or anything like that, you’re definitely ostracized.”

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