Veteran comic Colin Quinn on the encroachments of political correctness and the trials of Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari and Kevin Hart.

Comedy should be funny, Colin Quinn says: “It’s supposed to elicit laughs.” If that sounds obvious, Mr. Quinn says many of his fellow comedians see the matter differently. “I feel like a lot of people now are saying, ‘You know what? Comedy is supposed to be uplifting,’ ” Mr. Quinn says. “It’s like, what are you, the new moral majority all of a sudden?” Mr. Quinn, 59 and a veteran of “Saturday Night Live,” is holding court at the Olive Tree Cafe in Greenwich Village. The narrow, dark restaurant is a second home for many comedians because it is narrow and dark but also because it is connected—by a staircase and a common owner—to the Comedy Cellar, where big names and no-names alike come to try out new material. Around the corner is the 391-seat Minetta Lane Theatre, where Mr. Quinn stars in a one-man stage show, “Red State Blue State.”

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