Humorists
Claim: In moderation, like all things, humorists can be a powerful force in society, but far too often, they misuse the impunity they have.
Humor is often a powerful method of discussing the things that people don't want to discuss. In a normal setting, issues like race and gender are taboo - one must not speak of them. However, through the mode of satire, these issues become acceptable to discuss. Take for example the first issue that was mentioned: race. If one was to watch almost any comedian of a race that isn't Caucasian, they all seem to have a similar type of joke, and that is making fun of white people. To them, they have been discriminated against for long periods of time and this gives them the right to retaliate back in a very tame way. In addition, people seem to be more receptive to discussing such serious issues when they are in an environment that they are less likely to be judged for holding opinions. That, right there, is the crux of the issue. We live in an environment where discussing controversial issues like this is against the norm. Because of this, society finds it hard to define what's considered appropriate in comedy, or in other words, what's "crossing the line". There's a well known example of a comedian taking a joke too far: Tracy Morgan, during a show made a joke stating that he would "stab his son" if he found out he's gay. This obviously was something that he would not do, and was satirizing what members of society think of homosexuals.
Humor is often a powerful method of discussing the things that people don't want to discuss. In a normal setting, issues like race and gender are taboo - one must not speak of them. However, through the mode of satire, these issues become acceptable to discuss. Take for example the first issue that was mentioned: race. If one was to watch almost any comedian of a race that isn't Caucasian, they all seem to have a similar type of joke, and that is making fun of white people. To them, they have been discriminated against for long periods of time and this gives them the right to retaliate back in a very tame way. In addition, people seem to be more receptive to discussing such serious issues when they are in an environment that they are less likely to be judged for holding opinions. That, right there, is the crux of the issue. We live in an environment where discussing controversial issues like this is against the norm. Because of this, society finds it hard to define what's considered appropriate in comedy, or in other words, what's "crossing the line". There's a well known example of a comedian taking a joke too far: Tracy Morgan, during a show made a joke stating that he would "stab his son" if he found out he's gay. This obviously was something that he would not do, and was satirizing what members of society think of homosexuals.
Comments
Post a Comment