Suicidal Humor

In response to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's (AFSP) press release urging the entertainment industry to take responsibility for depictions of suicide on the screen or TV, I feel that their response was relatively unsuccessful. I feel that their success could have been increased and they could have had a better reaction had they noted the lack of connection between media portrayals and recent suicides. Part of this is that there could possibly be no correlation between suicides since the October 29th episode of The Office and the depiction of Michael Scott hanging himself.

While they do state that "[m]ore than 50 studies world-wide have consistently led to the same conclusion, explicit media depictions of suicide may prompt vulnerable people to copy the act", they never mention the fact that suicide rates also tend to rise during the holiday months of November and December. Perhaps the suicides are related to that statistic?

Michael even addresses that "suicide is never the answer" shortly after he depicts himself being hanged. Although he does depict a suicide, he also states that suicide "is the easy way out, you are never alone". This message is one of hope, in all reality. Having dealt with two friends who have been placed on 72 hour suicidal watch (three separate incidents) one of the best things to tell them is that they're not alone and that others feel the same way. It is also important to note that as Michael said, suicide is never the answer. It will not solve any issues. I feel that his depiction actually was rather smart and that The Office should never have come under fire for this depiction.

Racial Humor: Funny, Or Wrong?

Before I get into actually examining jokes based on race, I want to provide some examples with which I will be working.

The First is Whoopi Goldberg's "Bat Joke". The joke itself is completed less than a minute into the clip, yet Whoopi brings up some interesting points in the last half of the clip.

The second is a song from a musical called Avenue Q called "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist"

Rather than posting the lyrics, I will just link to them, since the blog would be incredibly long at that point. Lyrics

So, is the Bat Joke as told by Whoopi Goldberg funny? From the audience's response, I think it's clear that it is. But, is it hate speech? My thought is that yes, to a point. But I look at this as a "freedom of speech" issue. Take UW Oshkosh (and any UW school for that matter). As a university, they had to decide whether or not to allow people to come onto campus. In allowing those Speaker Series presentations and other groups to bring their own speakers to campus, they also must allow those who come and preach hatred to campus and claim that everyone on campus is going to Hell because they're not Born Again Christians. (Not a generalization, those are my experiences and those are the preachers who come and point out people in the crowd to say, "you're going to Hell"). We want to allow those negative speakers so we are able to allow the positive speakers. According to John Palmer, Assistant Dean of Students, it was one of those "All or Nothing" issues.

I am one of those people that believes the KKK has every right to organize and say what they will, that's one of the things that makes this country great. However, if they're having a rally at one end of a park, you can be sure I'd be having a counter rally at the other end.

So are racist jokes hatred speech? Yes, they are, however, I think that they have just as much right to say those jokes as other comedians have to say non-racist jokes. I think what the difference is between racist jokes and racist remarks, is that they're (generally) not directed at individuals, rather than the community (which isn't better, and I don't like it, but it happens)

But He's Not A Redneck!

The question at hand here is are people outside of a group allowed to make fun of those inside the group. One such example of this is the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. The Blue Collar Comedy Tour, now one of the best rated comedy shows on Comedy Central consists of four men: Dan Whitney, Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall and Ron White.

While two of the four men fit the role of "redneck comedian", two others, Dan Whitney, and Jeff Foxworthy come from different backgrounds. Foxworthy, although from the south, also grew up just outside of Atlanta Georgia, hardly "redneck country". Whitney grew up in south eastern Nebraska. (It should also be noted that Engvall comes from a town of 50,000+ people).

So how is it that they are able to make these jokes?

Personally, I feel that any comedian is able to make a joke about anyone or anything, regardless of their standing in that group/role. However, there is a point where jokes are funny, and jokes are offensive. I do not find the Blue Collar Comedy tour to be funny at all (with maybe one or two exceptions per comedian). But overall, it's not funny, so I will switch to a different example.

Jokes relating to the LGBTQ community. As a member of the community, often I am searching for new findings and media related to the community as a whole. Sometimes, I find what I am seeing incredibly funny: Will and Grace (although that's a different story and another blog post entirely), Ellen Degeneres, Kathy Griffin, Margaret Cho, etc. Yet, some of those people are not part of the community, in fact, only Ellen identifies as such (at least openly, I tend to have my doubts about some of the others). So why are they able to make jokes about the LGBTQ community without negative repercussions?

It seems to extend from the fact that they are all incredibly big allies to the community, however, there also seems to be a different idea behind this:

As Shana Naomi Krochmal writes in her article (entitled: "Did You Hear The One About A Straight Man Telling A Gay Joke? It Was Funny") in the August 2007 edition of Out magazine, "what does it matter who's telling the joke as long as being the punchline doesn't require letting haters off the hook?". It is very possible that those within the community telling jokes are incredibly homophobic (internalized homophobia). Those outside of any given community are able to joke around about different issues, but again, to a point.

After thinking about whether or not someone needs to be within a community to be able to joke about that community, we need to examine the jokes being told.

Are the facts in a joke true? Is that what makes them funny?

More often than not, I would say that the "facts" in a joke are perceived to be true, or perhaps at one time were true. Take Margaret Cho's joke about gay personal ads compared to straight personal ads. She notes a difference in the two, where one is looking for a companion (the straight ads) and the other (the gay ads) are looking just to get sex. This is one of the common misconceptions about the LGBTQ community, that they are more promiscuous than the straight community. But yet, it's funny. I almost peed my pants while watching that clip. I think what accounts for the difference is the fact that (generally)(and this is what makes the joke funny) straight people are much more conservative with theie sexuality than those in the LGBTQ community, so rather than bouncing around the issue, there is a direct path, and it is known what people want.

This goes for any kind of joke.

Compulsory Heterosexuality at work...

Let me just start by saying that this is not a humorous blog post (so it's not for class). After this class, I intend to change this blog into a blog that focuses more and more on my area of studies and one that I can look back to for inspiration/advice for others.

Having said that:

So I attended the Diversity and Leadership Conference at UW Oshkosh today. I have always been one to admit that I know we all (but even I) have a long way to go when it comes to diversity and understanding.

So the keynote speaker, Brian Johnson (amazing speaker, really) also presented one of the small educational sessions. In this session he told a story. (I don't know all the details, but I'll repeat the story best that I can)

A long time ago, there lived a king and queen in a kingdom by the sea. They lived in their castle with their servants. The only way into the castle was to cross a moat built around it. In the moat, there were man-eating fish. So the only way across it was a boat or the draw bridge.

Guarding the draw bridge was a strong guard. One day, the king told his wife not to leave the castle, and that he would be going on an overnight hunting trip. As he left, he told the guard not to let anyone into the castle, and if he did, there would be extreme consequences to pay.

So the king heads out into the country. That night, the queen leaves the castle covered in a shawl to meet her lover. Upon returning, the guard would not let the queen in. The queen demanded to be let in, for she's the queen of the castle. The guard stood strong.

Frustrated, the queen found a local fisherman who owned a boat. The captain of the boat said that he would ferry the queen over for 1000 gold pieces. The queen did not have that on her, and said to the captain that she could pay him when they arrived on the island. The captain of the boat denied that option.

The queen then went to her lover and begged for the money. The lover refused as well.

Still frustrated, and now angry, the queen went back to the drawbridge and tried to force her way past the guard. The guard after trying to stop her, took out his sword and killed her.


After that story was told. We were divided into groups and told to rank, in order from 1-5 (1 being most responsible, and 5 being least responsible) who is responsible for the queen's death.

(The 5 characters are the king, the queen, the guard, the captain of the boat, and the lover)

While discussing, Brian Johnson was listening to all of our conversations.

As a member of the LGBTQ community, I felt that I was so good and not assuming...and yet...in none of the groups did the possibility come up of the queen's lover being a female. Everyone referred to the lover as "he" or "him". This, along with other sessions, really made me realize that as "advanced" as I thought I was, I still have a LONG way to go.

Men or Women: Look Who's Talking

A question that I've heard, even outside of this class is: Are men or women funnier? (Then the question was raised for the class: Why are there so many more male comedians and comedic actors than female comedians and comedic actors?)

To answer the first question. I do not think that men are funnier than women or that women are funnier than men. Personally, I look at each individuals materials and analyze whether or not those are funny. If I were to look at some of my favorite comedians: Ellen Degeneres, Lewis Black, Mitch Fatel, Wanda Sykes, Mitch Hedburg, George Carlin (I could keep going) the list would probably follow a similar pattern, maybe two or three men for every woman on the list. However, I do no think that it is because they're men that they're funny, for I believe that if women did the same skit, they would be just as successful. I do not believe that there is a correlation between being a male and being funny or being a female and being funny. I think it just is one of those things, "some people are, some people are not". There are many male comedians that I just do not find funny, just as there are female comedians that lie in the same category.

Onto the second question. Why are there so many more male comedians and comedic actors than female comedians and comedic actors?

And I feel that it is this way because this is how it started. As the article, "Battle of the Sexes", explains; "to produce humor in conversation is to take the power role" (16). I, however, believe it is the opposite (or at least historically, has been the opposite). It is those with a power role who can produce humor. Up until the late 1980s, early 1990s, women were almost invisible in the comedic world. Males have traditionally had the power in most of the world, and therefore males were the first to be signed to be comedians. More and more females have come and risen the ranks of the comic world and are now just as, if not more famous than some of their male counterparts.

I think that more and more women are going to be entering the comic world in the upcoming years. I feel they are able to do this because one of the easiest ways to get there, is to be able to laugh at yourself and make fun of yourself (as well as others, as long as it's tasteful). And women, since they have traditionally been put down throughout history, have a lot of ways to do this. Also, women are more willing to (in my experience) bring up "taboo" topics and challenge these issues. This is seen in the interview with Julie Goldman and Kate Rigg. They talk about issues such as Racism, and how it can positively be Incorporated into a routine. They use Sarah Silverman as an example, and explained how although it was deemed racist, really, it was a rather clever way to address the issue or race.

Now, just because I like it so much, I'm going to direct you to a webcomic xkcd, a comic that I feel addresses gendered humor really well..

Women and Men: Laughing A lot or a little?

As stated in the article in the study completed, women do tend to laugh 126% more often than men do (Provine 59). This goes back to one of my previous blog posts when I said that (in my belief) men laugh louder and harder, but women tend to laugh at more things (more often).

In terms of laughing at different things, I tend to believe that yes, there is a difference in what males and females tend to laugh at. Although the article did not address this issue, I think that there is clear evidence for this.

I think back to last Wednesday night (October 28th). Some friends of mine and I were in my friend Abbey's room. South Park came on. The make up of the people in the room were three males (Myself, Kyle, and Mark) and three females (Abbey, Courtney, and Jessica). The three girls instantly wanted to turn off the show, whereas the three guys requested that the show stay on (We ended up watching 1/2 of the show, then switching it). But even if this is an isolated incident, it supports the previous claim that I made in this post.

However, one other interesting thing that came out of this night of South Park does relate to the article. The idea that laughter is contagious. Mark, Kyle and I were laughing uncontrollably at a certain time in the show (where the captain of a boat gets impaled with a harpoon) and two of the three girls started laughing with us (They later admitted that some parts of the episode were funny, but overall, they do not like the show).

What is not aware (to us at this point) whether or not we laughed more due to the fact that we had been drinking alcohol that night (although really, not a lot of it, ~1-2 beers per person)...that could be something interesting to think about, the effect of alcohol on laughter.