Comic Jad Sleiman Will get Job Again After Being Fired Over Jokes

Good jokes — and good union assist — helped a public radio reporter get his job again after he was fired over clips from his stand-up set posted on social media. 

As Vice reviews, Jad Sleiman emerged largely victorious from an arbitration dispute with the Philadelphia NPR member, WHYY. The third-party arbitrator discovered that the station didn’t have “simply trigger” to fireside Sleiman over the jokes he posted to social media, and must be reinstated. The arbitrator additionally dominated that a few of the materials was inflammatory, and must be faraway from social media — but in addition said that a few of the jokes had been fairly humorous.

“The one factor I’ve been instructed about arbitration is that they often cut up the child, so no person will get all the pieces they need,” Sleiman mentioned. “However what’s been on my aspect this complete time is the case towards me has simply been such bullshit.” 

Sleiman spent 5 years working at WHYY as a reporter on the well being and science program, The Pulse, whereas pursuing stand-up on the aspect. He was fired final January after administration discovered a few of his clips on-line, deeming them offensive and a violation of the corporate’s social media coverage. The arbitration case centered round 9 bits, through which he joked about his experiences as an Arab-American and serving within the Marines, in addition to politics, intercourse, and racism. 

Amazingly, within the remaining ruling (which Sleiman shared on-line), arbitrator Lawrence S. Coburn successfully broke probably the most fundamental rule of comedy and defined Sleiman’s jokes. In doing so, he declared some humorous, some not humorous, and acknowledged what elements might be thought-about inflammatory. As an illustration, the joke “Pussy Transplant” — about Sleiman’s dumb Google search: “Are you able to be born and not using a pussy?” — may actually be “interpreted as inflammatory merely due to the vulgar language used.” 

One other bit, “Went to Chinese language Whore Home,” discovered Sleiman joking a couple of harrowing expertise the place some European volunteer troopers preventing ISIS in Iraq took him a “Chinese language whorehouse.” The routine touched on the irony of those troopers, as Coburn put it, “preventing ISIS partially due to its inhuman remedy of girls,” but frequenting an institution the place blatant intercourse trafficking was happening. It additionally closed with sharp punchline from Sleiman, “I don’t care for those who paid for it, I’m not banging out a slave. I’m not half of the founding fathers.”

Coburn mentioned the routine provided “insightful, principled, and severe” commentary — but in addition declared it “not very humorous.” 

Alternatively, Coburn did appear to love Sleiman’s joke, “Form of Racist,” which appeared to allude to his day job. In it, Sleiman quipped: “I work at certainly one of these locations that’s so woke it’s kinda racist. Like this girl requested my boss, she’s like ‘Yo, does Jad contemplate himself an individual of shade?’ Uh, as a result of she was making a listing of us. Fucking hell? Sick alright. I get to be on on this girl’s brown dude Pokédex.”

Coburn known as this joke “a strong condemnation, in a humorous means, of what [Sleiman] calls corporatized racial consciousness that makes him, an individual of shade, really feel uncomfortable as a result of he would favor to be categorized as an entire particular person whatever the shade of his pores and skin.” 

Sleiman was supported within the arbitration listening to by SAG-AFTRA’s grievance attorneys, who claimed he’d been fired with out due course of. The reporter/comic credited the union for serving to him get his job again, particularly as a result of Pennsylvania has “at-will” employment legal guidelines.

“They may have simply fired me and that might have been the top of it,” Sleiman mentioned. “The truth that it’s a union store is definitely the entire cause I used to be capable of struggle again in any respect.” 

In an announcement shared with Philadelphia Journal, WHYY mentioned it was reviewing the choice and contemplating “attraction choices and subsequent steps.” The station added: “Whereas we don’t agree with all the arbitrator’s conclusions, we actually settle for the arbitrator’s determination that Mr. Sleiman must completely take away all inflammatory or offensive social media posts as a situation of any future employment at WHYY.”

Whereas Sleiman took his firing as an opportunity to concentrate on comedy full time, he admitted he’s able to stroll again into work “like fucking Vince McMahon.” He added: “They tried their greatest. They known as me each identify within the ebook. They lower off my medical health insurance. They deleted all of my fucking tales, which like, what the fuck? After which they nonetheless misplaced. Folks maintain asking, ‘Is it going to be bizarre going again?’ I’m like, yeah, for them.”