The Power of Comedy

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2 Responses

  1. jeffdowd says:

    I do see how someone can employ comedy to forward social justice, but a good joke can certainly be used to divide us. Or for that matter to undermine social justice, to diminish the importance of racial or gender inequality (see Carlos Mencia), or to promote racism (again see Carlos Mencia), or to ridicule all social activism (see South Park).

    Both South Park and Mencia are capable of telling “good” jokes – I think the creators of South Park are quite funny and Mencia can tell a joke and has comedic timing but they don’t often make us laugh together – precisely because, as you point out, jokes are almost always a little more than just jokes.

  2. Letta Page says:

    Readers may also really enjoy the TSP Roundtable “Laughter and the Political Landscape” at http://thesocietypages.org/roundtables/humor/, the Contexts piece 30 Years of Black Presidents (by Walt Jacobs) at http://contexts.org/articles/winter-2010/30-years-of-black-presidents/, and the array of comedic voices (many very political in various directions) at Stand UP! Records (standuprecords.com). Full disclosure: I absolutely work for or have worked for all of these organizations in my time as an editor and copy writer!

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