Your opinion. His chief should be defending him instead of capitulating to the current hysteria.
Do you work in a field where adversarial encounters are common?
Do you work in a field with mentally ill and agitated customers are the primary population?
This isn't about him being a comedian. He is using words instead of physical force to gain compliance. As I said twice already, those who don't work in these kinds of fields, have little insight or standing to make any judgment.
Responding to obstinance with absurdity is a fantastic de-escalation technique. Sometimes silence works better, sometimes not. There is a reason in both of my careers that junior employees (and sometimes senior) were sent to shadow me on this very skillset.
One particular schizophrenic (she is dead now
) had a wide variety of delusions. Most of them common - people moving things around in her house, stealing her blood, people on the television talking to her. Her top delusion on rotation was related to a "Negro Postmaster in Louisiana" and a tribe of "Pygmy Negroes". In her particular case, you could almost stop all agitation by asking questions, but not in a serious way.
I would ask things like:
"I'm sorry to hear that, are the pygmies able to get into the house because they are so tiny? How do you think they find jeans in their size?
I received Christmas cards since from the adult children. They were thankful that she was so calm and "happy" after her encounters with me vs other officials/administrators in the community.
I used to attempt to mediate situations in public, until I realized I didn't want to get stabbed if/when something went wrong.
