Should Comedy Be Politically Correct?

Arnold Schwarzennegger announced his candidacy for governor on the Tonight Show. John Edwards announced his candidacy for president on The Daily Show. And now Sarah Palin has in effect announced her candidacy for president in 2012 by denouncing Late Show host David Letterman for a joke about her daughter--the wrong, younger daughter, it turned out--being knocked up by baseball star Alex Rodriguez.

Palin accused Letterman of promulgating statutory rape. He apologized for the joke. Neither Rodriguez, who was once Madonna's insignificant other, nor the flight attendants' union, made any public objection.

Palin also objected to being compared to a "slutty flight attendant," though Letterman didn't apologize for that one. Palin never complained when Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert--separately but equally--compared her to the generic librarian in a porn movie who removes her glasses and lets down her hair. When Jay Leno told a joke about John Edwards and Bristol Palin, implying that they had sex, Sarah never mentioned that. And she didn't say a word about Larry Flynt's porn movie, Nailin' Paylin.

But this wasn't the first time a comedian has been accused of telling a joke that could be blamed for the possibility of instigating a criminal act. In his book, Cracking Up: American Humor in a Time of Conflict, Paul Lewis quoted a Leno joke from January 2005: "Do you know what week this is in our public schools? I'm not making this up. This week is National No-Name-Calling Week. They don't want any name-calling in our public schools. What stupid dork came up with this idea?" Lewis then wrote:

No doubt staying with his fixed role not as a satirist but a comedian, Jay Leno sent this joke flying, along with tried and true observations about Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise, Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton. Anything to avoid 'preaching' to his audience, anything for a joke, a laugh. Leno may begin his routine by asking 'Did you see X or Y,' but affecting how viewers see anything is the last thing he intends.

It appears not to matter that, however ridiculous it sounds or can be made to seem, National No-Name-Calling Week might just be a good idea. A step away from a culture that leads the world not just in gun violence but specifically in school shootings. Not taken into account by Tonight Show gag smiths was the fact that there were 23 fatal shootings and six fatal stabbings in American schools during the 2004-5 school year, climaxing in the Minnesota Red Lake High School murder/suicide that left nine people dead and 13 others wounded a mere two months after Leno enjoyed his dork putdown. Does it matter that Jeff Weise, the junior who began this killing spree by murdering his grandparents and ended it by killing himself was, as Red Lake students told MSNBC, 'regularly picked on him for his odd behavior,' that he was 'terrorized a lot by others who called him names'?

'Hey,' I can hear you thinking, 'take it easy. Lighten up. It's just a bleepin' monologue.' It's the 'just' part that gives me pause. The Red Lake teen jokers, the ones who found, perhaps, an outlet for their aggressive instincts or were also, perhaps, just enjoying a joke or two at Jeff Weise's expense: should we lighten up on them too? Unlike Jay Leno, their humor was spontaneous, an expression of what was running through their twisted little adolescent brains.

"Perhaps they were feeling anxious, insecure, depressed, stressed out; perhaps the ridicule they served up was therapeutic, not for their target obviously, who would eventually acquire a more lethal weapon but, in the moment of laughing, for them. That the overlap of healing and hostile impulses...in cases of adolescent name calling, can be fatal appears not to have factored into the creative process followed by the Tonight Show staff. As Leno told the Los Angeles Times, members of his audience have a simple desire: they 'want to hear a joke.'

A January 2005 press release issued by the No Name-Calling Week Coalition stated: "Results from 2004 bullying surveys in schools indicated that students reported a significant decrease in the amount of bullying and harassment in school after taking part in the first No-Name-Calling Week and its activities. More than 5,000 educators and administrators have officially registered to take part in the [2005] week."

OK, then. So a priest, a rabbi and a bully, all fully armed, walk into a bar to hunt down a punch line . . .

Paul Krassner is the author of Who's to Say What's Obscene: Politics, Culture and Comedy in America Today, with a foreword by Arianna Huffington. Reserve your copy at paulkrassner.com.

Comments

[DEJM]

Krassner,

Comedians everywhere need to be brave, schedule that therapy session and face the possibility that Letterman just wasn't funny.

The solution may be something as simple as hiring funnier writers.

Good luck.

[TommyMcCarthy]

Even though he's one of the funniest MFrs to ever walk the planet..........
Nothing Paul writes beongs on the Comedy page....
I need a "hit" of Krassner's incisive and topical humour (better word) just to MAINTAIN,...
and to resist the urge to climb the steps of the nearest clock tower!!
Serious as a heart attack

Regards
tm

[TheAlabamaRambler]

It has nothing to do with being 'politically correct', whatever that is... it has everything to do with propriety. There is an obvious distinction between political criticism and personal insult. Letterman's a smart man, he knows where that line is and chose to cross it. Political parody it was not - it was a direct insult to a politician's family member.

[o4tuna]

I doubt you held the same position with regard to Bill Clinton and his daughter. Bristol is a public figure. She, either by her own free will, or at her mother's direction, is in the public eye working for her mother. She is fair game.

[truthartbeauty]

no, comedy and art cannot be regulated

[idahodenizen]

There is a difference between political incorrectness and plain old bad manners. In our culture, it is considered very bad manners to pick on someone smaller than yourself. Therefore, adults picking on children would always be considered bad manners. For a child to kick David in the knee, for instance, would be very funny indeed. But the Rightees have a tremendous double standard. Anyone supporting Bill O'Reilly or Rush Limbaugh should apologize to the rest of us for encouraging the rudeness that surrounds us. When I listen to them, I'd like to kick them in the knee for interrupting their guests and being loud and abrasive. Would that be politically incorrect or just bad manners? They ARE bigger than me....

[rjmiller]

Since when is statutory rape not funny?

[Clavis]

The rules are very simple:

If a conservative makes a joke about a liberal, then political correctness is bad and the liberals all need to lighten up.

If a liberal makes a joke about a conservative, then political correctness is good and the liberal comedian must apologize.

Any questions?

[imfedup]

"Screw political correctness."
Sarah Palin

[wietog]

Yup.

[oregonideas]

actually there are some "rules" regarding "put-down" humor: 1) joke with and about friends, a put-down comment that gets a laugh from a buddy just might get a fat-lip from a stranger 2) be sure your "target" knows you're kidding....remember that wonderful line in Owen Wister's "The Virginian" when the protagonist tells a guy who just called him an S.O.B., "smile when you say that." 3) be sure you're an OK guy to tell the joke or make the comment: fat guys can make fat-guy comments to other fat guys, African-Americans can make racist comments to other African-Americans and women can make jokes about women to women (guys, be very careful on this last one)......however, if we're all very careful to only tell jokes that won't offend anyone, the Improv is closed, Comedy Central is bankrupt, and sitting around having a few beers with your buddies will get very boring

[wizegeye]

It's amazing that so many people seem to be missing the point. Yes, this is typical Letterman. Yes, Palin probably overreacted and in a somewhat self-serving way. Yes, public figures, especially politicians, need to have thicker skins to take the criticism. However, the real issue here is that the derogatory comment was aimed at a child/young adult. Our society seems to accept that it's OK to personally attack public figures. However, do we really consider the children of politicians public figures and to the degree that the parent is a public figure and open to criticism? This is where things have crossed the line. Many in today's society have no self control and fell they can say whatever they want about whoever they want. What kind of country is this where it's even debatable that it's OK to make personal attacks against a young person just because they're the child of a public figure? Those who make such comments have no self-respect and low self-esteem.

[CJWebber]

You are right to some degree. In this case, however, the joke was aimed at A-Rod and Bristol, both of whom are public figures and both of whom are adults. Both these people have a reputation for sexual promiscuity.

It would be entirely different if the joke was about Willow or Piper or any other child because then IT WOULDN'T BE FUNNY! Letterman wants the audience to laugh, remember.

[Bittancurt]

Check out the Palin fans screaming that the Letterman kid's a bastard. Think that might get back to his schoolmates? You might want to change a couple of words.

[o4tuna]

At what point does a child of a public figure become a public figure and fair game?

[itolduso]

I remember a time when an incident such as this would only find coverage in the pages of The National Inquirer (or some other gossip rag). At a time when newspapers & msm are struggling, how in the world can they justify sending 35 reporters to cover this ridiculous 'staged' event, and devote so much news space (in our rapidly shrinking papers) and air-time to such idiocy? NEWS organizations should be covering NEWS - not wasting our time with tasteless jokes & publicity-hungry politicians that ignore the very real challenges facing the citizens that voted for them to roll in the mud & claim injury. Any editor that sends a journalist to cover such garbage should be FIRED.

[AmericanDreamWarrior]

Didn't we already go we already go through all this politically correct sensitivity training back in the 90's and didn't we all decide as a whole that we didn't want our comedy or satire watered down?

I knew Letterman was joking, it wasn't one of his better jokes but joke nonetheless! Why this joke now and not all the many other "jokes" prior to? What I don't understand is how Palin thinks she can continue to get away with pushing her kids centerstage to exploit them at the altar of her political ambition and then wag her finger or cry foul if anyone had the temerity to say anything at all! If she truly wanted her children off limits, shouldn't she have worked to keep them behind the scenes? Seems like she's been setting up the media and the public with impossible to ignore situations to comment on just so she can say "ah ha gotcha! How dare you? You can make it up to me by donating to my fund"

But here's a question, what about public figures that irresponsibly comment on current events that may have or lead to real outrage and violence? O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh and others. What responsibility do they have to be "politically correct"? Do we place more value on our comedians to influence our behaviour but not news commentators?

[goldcoastsailor]

We're called the 'aristocrats'

[Chitownfool]

I was made fun of in school and I made fun of other it's all in good fun it's those kids who don't realize other are just kidding around and take it personaly....that makes kids want to keep making fun of them kids need to have thicker skin if they cant deal with a bully in high school how are they ever gonna make it the real world..I don't feel bad for the school shooter he was a weak person

[BlackJAC]

I believe Dubya was operating under that same mentality when he told the terrorists to Bring It On. How'd that work out for us, again?

[hoosier96]

You fail to see the difference between insulting someone personally and insulting someone by not being politically correct. Political correctness deals with language that conforms to orthodox thought. For example, it is not politically correct to call someone "black". They should be called "African American". If you were to describe somone as black, it may be taken as offensive because the language is NOW considered rude and inappropriate and is insulting to not just the person described, but an entire race.

Insults, on the other hand, are personal, they are aimed at a particular individual or group, and can be used on anyone regardless of race, color, religion, etc. Such as suggesting that someone is a slut or an idiot. Comedians are always using political incorrectness to give their routine edginess and make humorous observations about social commentary.

There's nothing funny about flinging insults at someone, especially when there is not even a shred of observable behavior to cause someone to assume that the insult holds water.

[BlackJAC]

Since comedy usually points out the foibles of people, places, and institutions, it should be noted that there's a marked difference between political incorrectness and being an offensive jerk simply for the shock value. TROPIC THUNDER, for example, was really indicting how actors can become supremely full of themselves, with Robert Downey Jr. getting an Oscar nod simply for doing something the producers of THE GOOD EARTH had done decades earlier. Conversely, how many raunchy-fo­r-their-ow­n-sake comedies became loss leaders because they mistook raunchiness for wit?