Take It
Humor Today
Arsala Khan
Issue date: 4/13/09 Section: Opinions
We follow lots of trends. Obviously, as trends are, well, trendy, they get a lot of attention. There is one such trend that I partake in quite a bit, but I don't necessarily understand.
As of late, humor in America has taken an interesting turn. Slapstick and sitcom-type jokes are so yesterday, and Americans have found a brand new way to make people laugh: using dangerous, depressing or horrific events and portraying them as comedy.
Don't believe me? I'll give you an example. If you've ever seen "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle," you'll note Neil Patrick Harris' character as one of the most outrageous and yet lovable ones.
In one particular sequence, the studious Harold loses his car to NPH, who, while sitting halfway out of the sunroof, does a line of cocaine off a hooker's ass. Now, I know that sounds hilarious. I myself am guilty of referring back to that scene in the movie and using it as something that I did last night, in class one time or at your local Denny's. But how funny is it really? Are we as individuals really promoting the use of hard drugs like cocaine? Is prostitution something that is becoming funny instead of potential slave labor?
Similarly, in the upcoming film "Observe and Report," Seth Rogen's character lives with his mother who is, the audience assumes, an alcoholic. The trailers show one scene in particular when she turns to Rogen and tries to say something loving and instead slurs her words and falls to the floor, passed out. Last time I checked, alcoholism is a lifelong battle and has taken the lives of many through depression, car wrecks and disease. In fact, I recall watching a clip of a special on "Observe and Report" and the woman playing Rogen's mother even explained how making an alcoholic look funny was a challenge. I wonder why. No, I don't really wonder why. I know why.
Because alcoholism isn't funny.
Lastly, one of Dave Chappelle's most controversial sketches concerns Clayton Bixby, a black white supremacist, we find the terrifying. In his skit, Chappelle himself plays Bixby, a blind man raised to believe he was white, never having heard any evidence to the contrary and subsequently becoming a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Dave Chappelle remains one of my favorite comics and I have laughed a number of times at this particular sketch, but that does not negate the reality of its grueling past. Does putting an amusing spin on some of the darkest days in black history make it bearable - funny, even? I don't think so, but I am guilty of laughing at the same sketch that I now question.
If this turn in humor is indeed a fad, then it won't last. But if the remnants of it linger for any extended period of time, it's possible that people will become more and more accustomed to this kind of humor and may become desensitized even further to things that remain real issues. Forget the ills of the sex slave trade, a beat-up hooker making a cameo in "Family Guy" is funny. Telling dead baby jokes is legitimate despite all the infants who die daily due to lack of food, water or medical care. Every Arab is a terrorist and it's amusing to highlight their inherent desire to kill people.
Then again, maybe it's just me. Maybe looking at comics and comedy today in such scrutinizing ways is unfair. After all, the duty of comics and the whole point of comedy is to make us laugh at all the absurdity around us. With that in mind, have we gone too far?
As of late, humor in America has taken an interesting turn. Slapstick and sitcom-type jokes are so yesterday, and Americans have found a brand new way to make people laugh: using dangerous, depressing or horrific events and portraying them as comedy.
Don't believe me? I'll give you an example. If you've ever seen "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle," you'll note Neil Patrick Harris' character as one of the most outrageous and yet lovable ones.
In one particular sequence, the studious Harold loses his car to NPH, who, while sitting halfway out of the sunroof, does a line of cocaine off a hooker's ass. Now, I know that sounds hilarious. I myself am guilty of referring back to that scene in the movie and using it as something that I did last night, in class one time or at your local Denny's. But how funny is it really? Are we as individuals really promoting the use of hard drugs like cocaine? Is prostitution something that is becoming funny instead of potential slave labor?
Similarly, in the upcoming film "Observe and Report," Seth Rogen's character lives with his mother who is, the audience assumes, an alcoholic. The trailers show one scene in particular when she turns to Rogen and tries to say something loving and instead slurs her words and falls to the floor, passed out. Last time I checked, alcoholism is a lifelong battle and has taken the lives of many through depression, car wrecks and disease. In fact, I recall watching a clip of a special on "Observe and Report" and the woman playing Rogen's mother even explained how making an alcoholic look funny was a challenge. I wonder why. No, I don't really wonder why. I know why.
Because alcoholism isn't funny.
Lastly, one of Dave Chappelle's most controversial sketches concerns Clayton Bixby, a black white supremacist, we find the terrifying. In his skit, Chappelle himself plays Bixby, a blind man raised to believe he was white, never having heard any evidence to the contrary and subsequently becoming a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Dave Chappelle remains one of my favorite comics and I have laughed a number of times at this particular sketch, but that does not negate the reality of its grueling past. Does putting an amusing spin on some of the darkest days in black history make it bearable - funny, even? I don't think so, but I am guilty of laughing at the same sketch that I now question.
If this turn in humor is indeed a fad, then it won't last. But if the remnants of it linger for any extended period of time, it's possible that people will become more and more accustomed to this kind of humor and may become desensitized even further to things that remain real issues. Forget the ills of the sex slave trade, a beat-up hooker making a cameo in "Family Guy" is funny. Telling dead baby jokes is legitimate despite all the infants who die daily due to lack of food, water or medical care. Every Arab is a terrorist and it's amusing to highlight their inherent desire to kill people.
Then again, maybe it's just me. Maybe looking at comics and comedy today in such scrutinizing ways is unfair. After all, the duty of comics and the whole point of comedy is to make us laugh at all the absurdity around us. With that in mind, have we gone too far?
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