Jokes and snowflakes

I’ve been doing stand-up comedy professionally for quite some time. So I just want to share with you what I’ve learned so far about comedy and why it’s always been considered a critical component of healthy public discourse.

As comedians are being attacked lately supposedly for their jokes that allegedly offend some sensibilities or those that blatantly belittle certain advocacies, let me tell you that most of the jokes we make are not necessarily an extension of our own perspectives. Truth is, we just want to make you laugh.

So when you call a comedian bigot, racist, or egotistic because you get incensed by his bit, you may be barking up the wrong tree. Chances are, he just wants to be funny even if the joke may not have landed well or worse, misfired at least based on how you reacted to it.

Besides, comedy is not really the root cause of held ideas and beliefs. At its very core, it is nothing but an exaggerated (albeit artistic) articulation of existing world views. It does not attempt to create a new paradigm though at the explicit level, I could argue it may produce non-existent realities, which nonetheless are still reminiscent of existing ones.

In other words, a joke works because it is relatable and it is relatable because it reflects some general sentiment.

So, stop insisting that a joke perpetuates ideas. When somebody makes a joke about rape, he does not really normalize rape, neither encourages it nor trivializes an issue that should not be taken lightly. In most cases, his joke may not really be about rape per se but a commentary on how some of our held beliefs about it are actually funny and absurd.

Scientists and philosophers have actually come up with studies on humor and the most popular of these is the so-called incongruity theory which holds that humor results “when our brains perceive 2 things as coexisting in a manner that does not at first appear to make logical sense and that laughter or humor occurs when the discomfort caused by this incongruity is resolved in some way (Anne Libera, the Science of Comedy, Sort of).“

A simple example of this is a pun. Humor results when we discover that a word that initially appears incongruent in the context in which we first encounter it has another meaning that makes logical sense when a different context is revealed. Below are some examples:

“Don’t worry if your girlfriend dumps you because you’re bald. It’s HAIR LOSS anyway!”

“Don’t fall in love with a midget. It’s a hard HOBBIT to break!”

“If somebody calls you fat. Don’t get triggered. Instead, be the BIGGER PERSON!”

“I actually admire the trans community. What they do takes a lot of BALLS!”

“I like Erap. Why? Because, he’s the only President with CONVICTION!”

“The problem with the LEFT is that it isn’t RIGHT!”

“The auction last night was a success. As usual, DARTH was the highest VADER!”

“Those who support U2 are not paid hacks. They’re pro-Bono!”

At the end of the day, comedy is not the enemy. On the contrary, it is the great equalizer. What it does is make you laugh. When you do, it takes you out of your comfort zone and allows you to confront things, ideas and concepts you normally wouldn’t. In some cases, it even allows you to lower down your defenses so you can sit down with others and discuss conflicting issues.