Good Comedy

Okay, the new Chappelle special is out and causing controversy, so it’s probably time to dust off my “good comedy” vs “good” comedy, knee-jerk reaction. I’ve not yet watched the show, but I’m already seeing the arguments and so I’ll do the gritty reboot about how people conflate moral good with artistic effectiveness in order to question or buffer the validity of a piece of work. This is a bit upstream of whatever particular joke is causing the Merry-go-round of mutual point-missing that seems to happen when someone talented does a joke that upsets people, but I think that makes it a little more evergreen.

Please don’t construe this as either a defence of, or a condemnation of the new Chappelle special, because as I said, I haven’t watched it, and what’s interesting to me about it right now is the discussion, rather than the inciting incident.

• Comedy can be funny and well constructed, skilful and effective AT THE SAME TIME as being hurtful, cruel, degrading or damaging. In fact, if it is funny, it will be more effective in its cruelty. It will have a more damaging impact.
• Laughing together at an ‘other’ group of people is an incredibly powerful and effective rhetorical tactic that can be used in many ways. The critical frame of “punching up” or “punching down” is a way of deciding whether this tactic is being used fairly or not, but is pretty much a red herring if you’re assessing whether something is funny or not.
• Some comedy can be morally beyond reproach and still not funny. Or vice versa, or both good (funny) and good (enlightening, improving, epiphanic, cathartic), or neither.
• Moral intent is only relevant to whether a piece of language is Good Comedy insofar as a joke will be more likely to be persuasive of its moral point if it’s also very funny (well done as comedy can mean well done as a piece of moral influence).
• Saying something is offensive and therefore not funny is facile and annoying and pointless. Because comedy is subjective, you end up in a recursive loop of someone saying ‘well it IS funny to me, and therefore can’t be offensive’. Blech.
• A joke being cruel or hurtful or relying on lazy stereotypes CAN reduce it’s effectiveness as comedy doing the job of comedy (which is to make people laugh), because some audiences can’t relax into laughter if they feel the comedian has contempt for them, or people like them. Part of the job of a good comedian is to understand and work with the crowd, so in that instance a ‘good’ (well written), but cruel (morally bad), joke is not ‘good’ (effective) comedy, because effective comedy requires the comedian to read (and control) the room.
• Obviously reading the room is harder when the room is the whole bloody world via social media, and your speech is delivered in a form moderated by someone else’s judgment to an audience that trusts them, not you, and that audience is many people in a variety of different moods and places, rather than a small space where you can smell the vibe.

Etcetera forever!

Xx

A

—-

As ever, if you like any of my work, do share it around. It makes a huge difference to me, and also sharing things you like is a pro-social act strongly associated with good health outcomes!