When a bad Trump joke becomes an affair of state, Germany has lost more than its sense of humour | Fatma Aydemir

The dropping of comedian Sebastian Hotz and Elon Musk's intervention raise serious questions about freedom of speech

The point of comedy is to make fun of everyone," a Berlin friend told me recently. What matters, he argued, is that you make yourself look silly too. But along the way, you're allowed to disrespect everyone as long as you are being creative enough. That, in his opinion, is what the genre is for.

I get what he means. Yet having followed enough of Germany's tortured discussions around comedy and satire over recent years, something about this argument doesn't feel right.

Fatma Aydemir is a Berlin-based author, novelist, playwright and a Guardian Europe columnist