I make my money from making fun of people. Sometimes it's not clever but it's what I do. It's not all that I do, on occasion I also tell carefully nuanced stories and comment on the struggle of life... but often I resort to making fun of people because it gets a laugh and that's what I'm paid to do.
That's not to say that I have given myself a license to make fun of everyone. Yes, for the record, I am in charge of issuing licenses entitling the holder to vilify a target of their choosing, what of it? Even so, there are certain groups of people that I don't make fun of, or if I do, it's not because of their association with that group.
For instance, I would never attack someone for being gay but I would point out if someone, who happened to be gay, was being a dickhead. Whatever the joke I made wouldn't be based around their sexuality but on their action that, I felt, made them seem like a dickhead. On one particular occasion I told a joke about a conversation I had with a gay person I knew. In the story I didn't once mention that they were gay because it wasn't important for the story/joke so I left it out. This didn't detract from making it funny but it did detract from making it mean. Maybe I'm old fashioned but if the audience doesn't have to work out if they're 'allowed' to laugh at something it allows them more time to actually laugh at something.
A few weeks ago I told a joke around the topic of anorexia. The joke wasn't about anorexia specifically but was about a woman who voiced her objection to the joke before I had told it. She was offended by the topic before I had finished the joke and my piece was lampooning her reaction. I took great care to avoid voicing any opinion or criticism of those suffering from anorexia for 2 reasons, firstly because I know very little on the subject and secondly because I don't think it's right for an ill-informed jester to poke fun at people suffering from a mental illness. But that's just my opinion.
Many years ago I was told that a joke that I did about a conversation with my then girlfriend (who later became my wife) was misogynistic and that, by implication, I was a misogynist. The joke was about a conversation with a specific individual who happened to be female and never once generalised the view of any gender or group. I hadn't stated or implied that my girlfriend's reaction was 'typical of women' nor anything of the sort. The only reason the audience knew her gender at all was because, by stating she was my girlfriend, it quickly addressed why we were lying naked in bed at the time, which was important to the joke.
The person who said this to me, who's gender is not important, told me that she (whoops) didn't like the joke and that I should change it because it was offensive to women. At the time it upset me and it still makes me angry that someone could construe that because of this joke that I was misogynistic. I think that it's just as offensive to avoid telling a joke about an individual because they are a part of a subset of society as if you generalise about the entire subset. I continued to do the joke because I thought this person was wrong and hey, sometimes women over-react (that's a joke - the author would like to state that both men and women are equally prone to over-reacting).
What i've noticed on the circuit lately is comedians telling jokes that are really mean and disparaging to people who have lowly paid jobs, simply because they have lowly paid jobs. People such as cleaners or staff in fast food restaurants. Again, not every joke that mentions these groups of people is offensive.
A friend of mine has a fabulous story about ordering food in a Red Rooster and the ridiculous events that followed. But that is a specific persons actions, my friend doesn't generalise and say that he did this because he is part of a group. It's very clear that the actions of the person working in the store are the actions of an idiot. Comedians can make fun of people who act like idiots, it says so on our license... which I issued.
What I'm saying is, pick your targets. Don't make fun of someone because they are a cleaner. There could be a thousand reasons why this person didn't become a brain surgeon and instead works the nightshift in the office you work at. To do so is insensitive and mean. But if that individual cleaner does something or says something that is funny then feel free to tell me about it.
I'm just a bit annoyed by people being mean to groups who didn't do anything as a group. If they act as a group then the can be judged as a group but if they act as an individual don't belittle them just because it's easier for you to be lazy and judge them collectively. A good example is the train drivers who work on the underground (tube) in London. They are often criticised by comedians as a group, but they also act as a group and take strike action as a group. It is their willingness to act as a collective that justifies them being judged as a collective. Of course you can judge groups as a whole but do it fairly. Another example, I don't think it's right to say that all Catholics are 'something' but I think it's entirely appropriate to say that the shared actions of the catholic church are hypocritical and harmful to humanity.
I'm not really sure what I'm getting at. I guess the hypocrisy of comedians annoys me sometimes. Comedians do some shit jobs to 'pay the bills' while they wait for their career to take off. It makes me angry to see a comedian on stage call someone a moron because they have a retail job when they themselves work in retail. I love comedy but let's keep it funny, too often people are mean because they're too lazy to write a better joke. It does get a laugh if you're just plain mean. There is a shock value that generates a laugh from an audience but that's lazy and you should aim to be a better comedian than that.
If you focus your jokes on your interaction with the person as an individual or an organised group it's harder. It takes time to find the personal twist that makes that interaction funny but it's also the way to write truly brilliant material. Pick your targets and lampoon away, make fun of the right targets as much as you want, I'll give you a license for that.
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