Sarah comedian with controversial doctor joke

Actor and bawdy comedian Sarah Silverman built her career tackling controversial subjects head-on.

Sarah comedian with controversial doctor joke

While most comics only scratched the surface of the joke, Silverman dove into the murky depths of race, religion and sex and with her blasé, seemingly prejudiced outbursts, effectively deflating taboos. However, taking on these issues was not without its controversies.

Silverman was fired from her regular gig on "Saturday Night Live" (NBC, 1975- ), and in 2001, while appearing on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (NBC, 1993-2009), she uttered a racial slur against Asian-Americans and was immediately castigated for it.

Through it all, however, Silverman rarely checked her sharp tongue or curbed her cutting-edge comedy, making even the lewdest male comics blush on occasion - including on-and-off boyfriend, comedian-host, Jimmy Kimmel, to whom she dedicated the Internet video sensation, "I'm F*cking Matt Damon."

However, Silverman also had a more serious side, as shown in