Is there comedy so offensive that it shouldn’t be allowed? Do some jokes encourage bigotry and hatred? Could edgy comedy ever begood对社会?These are some of the questions we’re asking in this week’s show onComedy and the Culture Wars. It’s our first new show since Ken died last month (apart from thetribute episodewe made), so I hope Ken would be happy to see that we are keeping the torch lit and his legacy alive.

We’ve all heard the complaint that “snowflakes” and “political correctness” are ruining comedy. There are some people, the complaint goes, who are just way too sensitive when it comes to jokes, and they need to lighten up and stop taking everything so seriously. They are ruining all the fun for everyone else.

Do they have a point? Do we need to Make Comedy Great Again? You know, like when white men with power could tell racist or sexist jokes and not get any pushback. Yeah, that seems like the direction we ought to be heading… Sure, there are people who need to lighten up. And there are definitely people who seem to be missing the “satire gene” or something. (Seriously, are you people congenitally satire-blind or what?) But there are also other people who really need to get a clue.

Some jokes serve only to reinforce prejudices and normalize bigotry and should be called out for that. If you like to tell those kinds of jokes and then get offended whenever there’s a negative response, perhaps it is you who is the “snowflake,” too delicate for this brave new world where there are social repercussions for your bigotry and prejudice.

At the same time, there is always someone, somewhere who is offended. You get the sense that some people are “outrage junkies” constantly looking for their next fix, the next headline or comment to get outraged by. They troll social media in search of offenses to the proper world order, as uniquely understood and enforced by them. They are usually not lovers of nuance and subtlety, preferring instead to jump to judgment without bothering to understand first. You know, the type who fervently lambasts an article they haven’t read, except for the headline, which they have misinterpreted. Are these “outrage junkies” ruining comedy?

"毁灭"这个词可能有点过了。我认为喜剧比这更有弹性。如果一件事因为一点批评就变得不好玩了，那么也许它一开始就没那么好玩了。然而，困难在于，在呼出文化中，比如我们自己的文化，有时被呼出的是真正令人反感的行为，有时则不是。有时只是有人被激怒了因为那是他们唯一的权力。但是我们如何区分这两者呢?And whenwereact negatively to a joke, how do we know which kind of reactionwe’rehaving? It seems to me there’s some responsibility on the consumer of comedy to reflect on these kinds of questions.

But is there also responsibility on the mongers of comedy to make sure they are not causing harm in the world? For example, do comedians bear responsibility for how their jokes are interpreted, or misinterpreted? TakeNorm MacDonald. No, please. Take him. Someone just take him! But seriously, should we feel sorry for Norm when he had to drop some jokes because “People are idiots. You don’t want to have a joke be misunderstood and then someone goes and beats up a trans person”? Or should we just roll our eyes because yet another straight, white, middle-aged, cis-gender man with a large public platform is complaining that he is no longer “allowed” to ridicule every marginalized group in society without repercussion? The man should be counting his lucky stars that someone so utterly mediocre was nevertheless given their own Netflix talk show! I guess this is what “silencing” looks like to an overrated hack like Norm.

Look, I’m not advocating for censorship in comedy. And I don’t even think there are certain topics that ought to be avoided. Comedians should be able to tackle controversial issues, even if—maybe evenespecially if—someone, somewhere, might get offended. It’s not about whether or not some comedy is “offensive.” It’s about whether it aligns itself with perspectives of power over those of the powerless. Comedy that “punches down” is just not funny most of the time. It’s tired, boring, and lazy. It makes me want to say: Hey Norm, the 1960s called. They want their jokes back!

Does that mean I think comedy is only funny when it’s “punching up”? When it’s making fun of the rich and powerful? I admit, I do enjoy that kind of comedy a lot;ifit’s good, that is. But we shouldn’t think that the “punching up”/”punching down” distinction exhausts all of comedy. There is the non-punching kind of comedy too, comedy where nobody gets hurt!

喜剧通常是揭露文化或个人习惯和观点，打破先入之见，提出困难的问题，搞乱既定的类别，颠覆意义。一些最好的笑话是没有屁股的。

好的喜剧是一种艺术形式。这很像好的哲学。只是更有趣。但喜剧和哲学都能让一个原本无法忍受的世界变得可以忍受。这是值得珍惜的。

Photo byTim MossholderonUnsplash