At a panel led by Neil deGrasse Tyson at the Paley Center for Media on Saturday afternoon, Nightly Show host Larry Wilmore used the opportunity to weigh in on comedy's role in providing a reprieve when tragedies like Friday's attacks in Paris strike.
Deadlinereports that toward the end of the panel, an audience member specifically asked Wilmore about what he felt was comedy's role after an event like the Paris attacks, adding, “How, at a time like this, do you begin to reconcile these events with comedy—and specifically a comedy TV show?”
Per Deadline, Wilmore responded:
Neil Tyson preceded the discussion by saying that Wilmore and other Comedy Central folks in attendance were "reaching for the most awkward, challenging social issues and somehow empowering people to laugh, and that is not easy to do. These are topics people don’t want to touch."