Last Saturday my husband and I went to the Comedy Cellar in New York City with some friends. The show was hilarious and we got to see a lot of really talented comedians. While watching the show I couldn’t help but think about how the comedians Saturday, and so many of today’s most popular comedians, play on our biases to write their jokes. Most notably comedians use racism and racial stereotypes but there is certainly some sexism and other ‘isms’ thrown in the mix. I couldn’t help feeling a sense of freedom at not only being able to laugh at these biased jokes, but at the fact that everyone in the room clearly understood and appreciated the humor even though a lot of it was blatantly bigoted. But mostly it got me thinking: why is the topic of race okay when comedians bring it up as a joke?
Obviously these racist scenarios and stereotypes resonate some degree of truth or else they would not be so universally funny. The truth is not the accuracy of the stereotypes but instead it is the fact that the stereotypes are simply flat-out wrong and yet they persist. Comedians are excellent at indirectly getting to the heart of real issues by poking fun at our own ridiculous biases and showing how easily they falter in the real world. What is it about our culture that only allows us to reach truth through comedy, as if that makes it any less true or us any less guilty of being racist or harboring racist sentiment?
Similarly, in our current polarized political landscape, the only news shows worth watching are the ones that don’t claim to be real news outlets but instead call themselves comedy shows; shows like The Daily Show often get at more truth and real issues than the actual “news” broadcasts ever do. Why is that?
Maybe we are just taking ourselves too seriously. In an age of political correctness, have we maybe gone too far? Biases are, after all, human nature; we all have them- good, bad, profound, superficial. I’m not trying to say that racism is right or okay but I do think that we should stop trying to hide it, or at least stop trying to disguise it with humor. On second thought if the humor is the only way to get to the truth then we shouldn’t stop the jokes. Instead maybe we should take some of that insight into our everyday lives. The simple fact that these biased jokes make hundreds of thousands of people laugh has to mean that we all secretly know the truth right? We all really know that we are all really racist, or sexist, or whatever. What if we stopped taking it so seriously? Could that be a way to actually overcome it? If race stopped being such a taboo topic, maybe we could finally overcome it‘s subsequent ‘ism.’ Exposing our biases might just make them disappear. Sure comedians will have to write new material, but there will always be in-laws.
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