A Humor Intolerant Nation

posted at 10:47 am on March 16, 2011 by Jazz Shaw
[ Political Correctness ]   

When the phone rang in my hotel room that afternoon as I prepared to leave for my second shift duties I wasn’t at all surprised to hear the voice of one of my co-workers. He frequently called to check in and see what was going on. He opened, as frequently happened, with a joke.

“Hey, do you know why engineers at NASA drink Sprite?”

When I sighed and admitted I did not, he said, “Because they can’t get seven up.”

Today that quip might not make sense to many of you reading this. Of course, it will when I put it in context and you find out that the date was January 29, 1986 – the day after the Challenger blew up with seven astronauts on board and fell from the sky.

Shocked? Outraged? Well save a little of your anger for me. I laughed.

It wasn’t one of those deep, belly laughs that errupt during a particularly good stand-up routine or a stifled squeak you might let slip at an off color joke. Rather it was the wry, resigned type of laugh you hear when somebody breaks the tension of an uncomfortable, stunning moment when you just don’t know what else to say. The joke was something which used to be more common: dark humor.

But in today’s politically charged climate, such things are becoming darned near a capital offense. We saw this in action this week when Gilbert Gottfried lost his job as the voice of the Aflac duck after tweeting some ill timed jokes relating to the tsunami in Japan. Shortly thereafter, Haley Barbour’s press secretary had to resign after e-mailing the following comment:

“Otis Redding posthumously received a gold record for his single, (Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay. (Not a big hit in Japan right now.) “

Even rapper 50 Cent – not exactly known as a paragon of good taste and demure social commentary – found himself having to offer a half-hearted apology on Twitter after rattling off a couple of tsunami jokes.

What’s happening to us? Are we really that easily put off our feed? When faced with unspeakable tragedy such as we’ve witnessed recently, do we really prefer to gnash our teeth, rend our clothes and wander around in a daze? There are some people – including yours truly – who find relief from such horrors in dark humor and a “what the heck are ya gonna do?” sort of attitude.

I didn’t find the Otis Redding joke particularly funny, but it also wasn’t some sort of slander against the Japanese. It’s disappointing that Barbour felt compelled to toss his press sec. under the bus so quickly to avoid damage to his presidential aspirations. And for the record, I’ve never found Gottfried particularly funny. His voice grates on my nerves and his stand-up acts are repetitive and irritating. But he’s a comedian, and one who is known for not being particularly careful in terms of political correctness. Aflac knew that when they hired him, or they should have.

Obviously there are lines which polite society shouldn’t cross, particularly when the “jokes” are personal attacks against a specific individual. But even then we seem to be pretty selective about who deserves protection. Remember when New York Giants player Plaxico Burress accidentally shot himslef in the thigh when he brought an illegal handgun into a bar? The guy was in the hospital with a fairly serious injury but the yucks were certainly going around the country within 24 hours.

Both my regular readers and my friends who know me personally are well aware that I have a rather caustic, wry sense of humor. It’s just how I operate. We’re all wired differently. During the last major stock market crash, when everyone’s 401Ks were turning into 201Ks, one of my friends commented on how, during the crash of the Great Depression, there were Wall Street investors throwing themselves out of windows in New York City.

I said, “Certainly gives a new meaning to ‘It’s raining men,’ doesn’t it?”

So sue me.

Everyone deals with stress, shock and horror in their own way. And for some people that involves dark humor. The cries to break out the pitchforks whenever somebody makes a joke that we may not find particularly funny is just another example of political correctness run off the rails.

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