This post follows Fine’s reflections on Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments. –Jeff
As we begin to find ourselves numbed by the tsunami of news, videos, and twittering from Sendai, we are moving from the tragedy (which is, of course, really, really sad) to find other topics that speak to our assorted emotional needs. We are not quite done with Japan, but our tears have dried. Soap operas can’t run over an hour. (The naïve Libyan rebels didn’t realize that their reality show was in reruns. But we have scheduled prime time grief for them next week).
Like clockwork, the topic du jour is joking after disaster. Af-lac! As folklorist Bill Ellis noted in his dissection of the jocular aftermath of 9/11, “Making a Big Apple Crumble: The Role of Humor in Constructing a Global Response to Disaster,” it routinely takes about three days for the first jokes to appear. Right on schedule, Mr. Gottfried, Mr. 50 Cent, and Mr. Haley Barbour’s press secretary.
Mr. Gottfried perhaps has it the worst of all as his gig as the voice of Aflac’s duck has been washed away. The duck will be “revoiced.” Hearing such offensive poultry would be too much. Who knew that Japan was the company’s largest market? (Fill in your own joke about the meaning of Aflac in Sendai.) Rather than quacking, Mr. Gottfried tweeted. His jokes struck me as rather mild (I have a strong stomach). For instance, “My Japanese doctor advised me that to stay healthy, I need 50 million gallons of water a day.” Drum roll, please.
Mr. Gottfried might be forgiven for thinking that he could ride out the storm since he had previously gained notoriety for his 9/11 joke at a comedian’s roast for Hugh Hefner in late September 2001. He joshed that he couldn’t find a direct flight because the plane had to connect with the Empire State Building first. After his roast appearance, he became something of a folk hero among comedians. One wonders what people thought they would get when they signed up for his tweets. Now we wait for Sarah Silverman.
Losing one’s livelihood for some middling funny jokes is tough business. Gottfried was forced to retreat, tweeting, “I meant no disrespect. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.” Of course he meant disrespect. That is his job. That is what we want from him. He was shredded by the buzzsaw of our hypocrisy.
But Gottfried was not alone. Dan Turner, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour’s press secretary, was rapidly fired for a rather convoluted witticism about Otis Redding’s “Dock of the Bay” not being so popular in Japan. Oy! And then there is rapper 50 Cent who was forced to apologize for commenting that he had moved his ho’s out of danger from LA, Hawaii and Japan. It was the Japan part that got him in trouble, not the ho’s.
Our discussion of the dangers of humor is bogus. Perhaps it offends, but free speech can offend. And when we go searching for speech that offends us, we should not blame the speaker when we find it. Let us not retreat to the treacly defense that the need to joke reflects our common humanity when faced with overwhelming pain. That line is worse than the jokes. These guys weren’t feeling overwhelming pain; they were moving on.
Jokes are told because we have a nasty, cutting streak. This contrarian view is part of our charm, just as the kind of political discourse that people bemoan is critical to a healthy democracy. Tough talk jazzes us; creating jokes allows us to grow tougher skin. It is not part of the grieving process; it is part of us that doesn’t wish to grieve. And we shouldn’t be ashamed of savory discourse.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that we should not also be aware of the plight of others. But this is not all of what we are. Anyone who spends time in an emergency room, in a social work office, or in a police station knows that rough humor goes with the territory. So, let us treasure those who begin the process by which we realize that we cannot change the world, but must distance ourselves from it, amused. We can wallow in the pain of others or we can recognize that our life continues.
No amount of sentimentality and faux outrage will change the reality that humor is happy talk from a sometimes cruel species. Today Aflac’s duck is protected; tomorrow he may be foie gras.
This conversation is too much about the talk and too little about the act. There are people who like it. As an engineer, I don’t.