Leslie Jones Doesn't Think Comedians -- Herself Included -- Should Be Judged for Jokes From Their Pasts

While appearing on "The View" on Monday morning, Joy Behar cited a newspaper article she read over the weekend, asking the "SNL" star whether she thinks comics should be "held accountable" for jokes they made back in the day.

Jones got fired up answering the question, bringing up her own "inappropriate" past and stressing the importance of laughter right now.

"I been doing comedy since 1986. You look back, y'all gonna see so much inappropriate ... you can't hold me accountable for what I said in 1987. I wasn't smart," she responded. "I'm so happy social media wasn't happening in my 20s. I would be the comeback kid. You all would be saying, 'Ooo, she's so respectable now!"

"Stop holding comedians to this standard. Stop doing that! Our job is to make the ugliest stuff funny. That's our job," she continued. "We are court jesters, we are clowns, that's what we do. We come out and make this terrible situation laughable. Unless you want to cry for the rest of your life, you want to cry? We can cry if you want to."

"I want to laugh. Laughter brings joy, laughter brings endorphins, laughter brings contagiousness," she went on. "People love me so much because I have an energy of happiness. I want everybody to laugh and the best way to conquer pain is laughter. It's the best way. So let comedians do their jobs, you're not letting comedians doing their job and you're miserable! You're miserable!"

"Because laughter is a release that you are now cutting off. Stop walking around so offended, you're not gonna be able to survive life if you walk around offended," she concluded. "LAUGH! LAUGH! LAUGH!"

The conversation comes after comedians like Sarah Silverman, Patton Oswalt, Michael Ian Black -- as well as "Guardians of the Galaxy" director James Gunn and "Rick & Morty" creator Dan Harmon -- have all come under fire as old jokes they made resurfaced online.