I can't do stand-up comedy. It's an art form. It's an incredibly difficult art form. Comics tend to be smart and courageous. They're artists. I would never pretend to know how to do stand-up, but I am a human being, and I do laugh. And laughter is not inherently "good". (thread)
Once again, with Louis C.K.'s reemergence, there's this bizarre school of thought that says comedy that's offensive can't be "bad" if it makes us laugh. Somehow, the ability to induce laughter means it must be smart and insightful and productive, that it can't be harmful.
I've laughed at offensive jokes because I'm a human being, and laughter is often involuntary. There's social laughter, the voluntary laughter that folks do for a variety of reasons, and there's actual laughter: the animal mechanism in your brain that fires off when stimulated.
You don't have to be a scientist to know that. Every human being has laughed at inappropriate times. We laugh at things they shouldn't. In fact, people who laugh at things they shouldn't, in itself, makes other people laugh. Your brain just reacts to stimuli. It's involuntary.
There is not a person alive who hasn't laughed at something, even when, if given the choice, they wouldn't want to laugh at it. You can be offended by something, think it's wrong, and your brain still says "that's funny", and you laugh. Laughter is not inherently "good".
I say all this because offensive/shock comedy apologists want to push this bullshit that something being funny means it's okay and isn't harmful. And that's not true. That's quite far from being true.
"Comedy" is often used as a cudgel against vulnerable communities. Sometimes, it's because it's easy. It's a lazy joke. And often, it's a way of expressing an offensive opinion because we've bought into this idea that if folks are laughing, it can't be a bad thing. That's wrong.
"It's just a joke."
It's not, though. Maybe if every adult who was registered to vote had the willingness and integrity to be introspective about the words they hear, it would just be a joke. Maybe. But we don't live in that world, and your words do matter.
It's not, though. Maybe if every adult who was registered to vote had the willingness and integrity to be introspective about the words they hear, it would just be a joke. Maybe. But we don't live in that world, and your words do matter.
Louis C.K. knows the things he says have weight. A substantial part of his career has built on themes that challenge bigotry and discrimination through humor. He's been praised in the past when he does this. And yet, when his humor goes the other way, it's "just a joke"?
There's this whole charade we're asked to buy into that comedy is off-limits because it's "free speech", and all free speech presented as "art" must be valid and essential. Lost in that shaky, defensive premise is a pretty damn important ingredient: who has power and who doesn't.
The shock/offensive comedy apologists want us to believe that "comedy" punching down on vulnerable and disempowered people is beyond reproach because it's "art". They also seem to believe the First Amendment means no one can criticize their "art".
I don't think everyone who makes offensive jokes have done so to hurt other people or out of some hatred or bigotry, but I think the belief that a lot of comics don't use "humor" as a convenient and effective vehicle to express their shitty, awful worldview is incredibly naive.
And I think it's profoundly disingenuous to pretend that countless comics don't attack vulnerable communities with hurtful jokes, or much worse: that if they do attack vulnerable communities, it's out of some higher sense of "art", not just getting an easy laugh.
I don't know with 100% certainty what Louis C.K. really thinks about non-binary people or survivors of school shootings. My gut tells me he doesn't really give a damn and this is just ridiculous pandering to assholes and maybe a little bit of anger at the progressive worldview.
But in a country where transgender folks are being attacked by a government that is, quite literally, attempting to redefine us out of existing federal protections, where school shootings are a quarterly--often monthly--tradition in America, I fail to see how this helps anyone.
Louis C.K. and his supporters want you to believe his jokes are just making people laugh, that he's not enabling anti-LGBTQ, racist, sexist, ableist, xenophobic assholes to inflict violent and discrimination on vulnerable groups. But he knows better. He just doesn't care. /thread
