--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Sarah Silverman: Nobody Can Say What Art Is Good image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae588b61dc1350dd/6988632f5f570f39b4b1d536/question-everything-offensive-art-sarah-silverman.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 11, 2015 # Silly TIME! Nobody Can Say What Art Is Good by Sarah Silverman  NEW YORK, NY - JULY 10: Actor Haley Joel Osment discusses his new series "The Spoils Before Dying" at AOL Studios In New York on July 10, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Adela Loconte/WireImage) NEW YORK, NY - JULY 10: Actor Haley Joel Osment discusses his new series "The Spoils Before Dying" at AOL Studios In New York on July 10, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Adela Loconte/WireImage)Getty Images; Photo Illustration by Mia Tramz for TIME No one can say definitively what art is good, silly TIME magazine! That’s for each individual to decide through the prism of their own history, in the state of the world when you are seeing it. There are pieces of art—film or TV or a joke or a sculpture—that are beautiful or funny or moving in 1940 and hideous or ugly or offensive in 1975\. A racial joke that’s funny in 2004 could be heinous in 2015, when the news is filled with cops killing black people. And it’s imperative that art not be hidden as it changes with time, no matter how ugly. It’s absolutely crucial to keep art—like history—exposed so that we learn from it. Otherwise, as you know, TIME magazine, we are doomed to repeat it. Oops, was my answer supposed to be funny? Oh, well. Maybe in time, in ways we can’t yet fathom, it will be. _Silverman stars in the coming film_ I Smile Back ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4029900/sarah-silverman-can-offensive-art-be-great/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4029900/sarah-silverman-can-offensive-art-be-great/"},"headline":"Sarah Silverman: Nobody Can Say What Art Is Good","datePublished":"2015-09-11T18:25:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:08:58.616Z","description":"Art—like history—should be exposed, so we can learn from it","url":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4029900/sarah-silverman-can-offensive-art-be-great/","keywords":["Sarah Silverman","Question Everything"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae588b61dc1350dd/6988632f5f570f39b4b1d536/question-everything-offensive-art-sarah-silverman.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltae588b61dc1350dd/6988632f5f570f39b4b1d536/question-everything-offensive-art-sarah-silverman.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4029900/sarah-silverman-can-offensive-art-be-great/","name":"Sarah Silverman: Nobody Can Say What Art Is Good"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Question Everything: Can Racist or Sexist Art Be Good?","description":"TIME hit the streets to ask New Yorkers several offbeat questions designed to provoke and prod the brain.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/cDnAE0dP/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-09-18T14:45:39.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cDnAE0dP.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4029900/sarah-silverman-can-offensive-art-be-great/","duration":"PT1M9S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/question-everything/4029900/sarah-silverman-can-offensive-art-be-great/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```