For many reasons, our modern society (at least in North America) seems to have undergone an erosion of its sense of humor. The latter is an individual attribute, of course, and it varies enormously as a function of people's intelligence, religious beliefs, body of ethics, etc. Unfortunately for those of us who can transcend first-degree language and distil condemnable behavior to put some absurdity in evidence, no matter the subject matter, a neo-puritanical school of thought appears to have made more and more adepts - as well as damage. Basically, for people endorsing such views on what is off-limits for laughter (generally in an unconscious, non-deliberate manner), there is an arbitrary decision that is made on what constitutes (or not) humor.
A good litmus test to detect whether one has already adhered –at least in part- to that neo-puritanism of modern humor is to subject oneself to typical episodes of extreme adult cartoons such as Family Guy, South Park or Robot Chicken, just to name these few. Each of these shows uses just about any topic to generate hilarity, generally right on target for a sizable audience (which is somewhat reassuring). It might be a drastic test as a matter of fact, but I found that I could ROFLMAO with just about any subject covered in these shows, except when I was very tired and could simply not see beyond the immediate repulsiveness of the topic itself (incest, extreme violence as a tool to accentuate a comical line, child masturbation, you name it, as anything goes with these cartoons as you know well). It must be emphasized, though, that these cartoons have one thing in common: they are generally playing the absurd chord, and absurdity is ubiquitous. Meaning: the irony does not bear on the subject matter, but rather on the collision of two ideas that make no sense when juxtaposed. It is virtually independent of any moral judgement on the topic in question, and humor lies strictly in the clash between two or more concepts. It's the idea brought by these juxtapositions that is funny, not the topic per se. In fact, the same type of absurdity could be found using almost any other "bad" behavior as a trigger for creating some absurd scenario.
And please don’t try to label me as a snob or an elitist if I mention that I count myself among those who can laugh at about anything: this is not a proof of a superior mind, but more of a freer one. Free-minded people are often perceived as spoiled brats who have never experienced any of these delicate topics which can lead to a good laughter provided that the script or writing or conception is good. In my case, at least, let me say that acquiring a truly free mind was a long, difficult process and a costly affair. It is a life choice that means sacrificing a lot of opportunities simply to preserve one’s freedom, and often means making enemies. On the other hand, the inner feeling that one gains is more than just a liberty of thinking: it’s also a sense of inner peace and spiritual strength, which means a lot in the face of adversity. And I encountered more than my lot of it!
Naturally, all roads lead to Rome, and there is more than one way to remain able to find humor with even the most immoral, disgusting topics imaginable, provided that there is, like I said above, some process of distillation. It is in the quintessence that humor lies, and it can be found everywhere, anywhere. As Rabelais wrote: “Laughter is a purely human attribute.” Are the offended virgins who are multiplying in the early 21st century losing it? And since I’m in a mood for citations, I’ll let Pascal finish: “Man is neither beast nor angel, and trouble is: who wants to play the angel, plays the beast.”
The cartoons mentioned above specifically target adults, because the capacity for abstraction fully develops when reaching maturity – with the help of a proper education, of course, and by there I don’t equate education with academic training. Common sense can develop even in people who never studied Plato or Descartes: a full, uninhibited sense of humor needs only the flame of intelligence.
That’s a-a-a-a-ll folks, and Viva PIAS and all the politically incorrect comics of the world!
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mail-2217
10 years ago
There's a term paper in there somewhere. :D
I am not as extreme as yerself. I find much 'modern' humour (Family Guy, Borat, South Park) either derivative or just plain soul destroying. The irony for me is that some of the very same people who might -love- Family Guy would find Play It Again Sam 'offensive'
I think that some of this bias is generational. Younger people are far more willing to assume that their peers 'know what I mean', whereas older people were all 'racists'... in the same way that young people of every era tend to think they invented profanity, sex, etc.
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feodoric
10 years ago
As a professor at 59, I give term papers rather than do them :-)
And you're partly right with your apt observation that extreme humor cartoons à la South Park or Family Guy may reflect a certain tendency to soul destroying. I can't help but notice that clever Seth MacFarlane's universe seems to have now reached its limits and that the now famous and multimillionaire animator/cartoonist/multi-impersonator blatantly reflects a major corollary of the Peter's Principle. As he's climbing the ladder of worldwide fame and financial success,not only his current-day creations tend to be mere rehashing of original material from his early years, but their cleverness appears to follow an unfortunate downward trajectory, with a bizarre fixation on poop, farting and ano-rectal variations thereabout.
Don't get me wrong: my complaint is not at all about the fact that I resent farting/pooping jokes per se, and they have been a welcome healthy, Rabelaisian complement to the assortment of clever and absurd socio-historical comments on conservative, Caucasian-dominated and God-fearing segments of the American (mostly) society, but I can't help but notice that scatological humor appears to represent a growing portion of humor in MacFarlane's most recent creations. Not that I'm very much concerned about the future success of what appears to have become, if not an empire, at least a big kingdom of his :-) (haven't they announced a Ted 2 for 2015?). Moreover, every time Family Guy's cancellation is announced, the show makes a huge comeback due to fans' outrage.
We're nowhere the end of that type of humor, thank God. However, despite the fact that like millions of huge fans out there, I can't have enough of it and will definitely buy Season 50 of Family Guy when it's out :-), I can't help but have a feeling of emptiness after watching whether it's Family Guy, South Park, American Dad, Robot Chicken and the like (the selection is growing, for the better methinks!). Yes, thrashing everything and demonstrating that nothing is sacred is funny and a sign of sanity, but at the same time, it's a liberating more than an enriching process. Thus, after a Play It Again Sam or a Bananas, I'll need perhaps a Match Point or a Crimes and Misdemeanors to regain some perspective on reality, despite the fact that we're always talking about fiction here.... That's what Woody Allen's humor and fantasies are capable of: to either make you forget about the miseries of our human existences, or reflect upon it. Hey! Allen might have attempted to imitate his master Bergman more than once, but Bergman's attempts at humor (or levity, more exactly...) have been few, charming, but never cracking up.
One can thus try to minimize the merits of Woody's Interiors, for instance, by calling it Bergman-derivative, but the Swedish genius did not leave us any Play It Again Sam. Thinking about it, I have little doubt that people who can't dig Allen's Interiors or Match Point because they can't imagine someone as funny as Woody Allen capable of profundity are probably the same who deny humorists the right to make us laugh when the topic is something as condemnable as rape...
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ireone3
10 years ago
it's good for me to see your fairly long, thoughtful replies on movies/tv and our society.
My opinion is - "largely immaterial/And if the President replies mind your own Goddamn business Tucker" - that society is degenerating, peoples lives (in the countries I know) are too combined and mixed up between indoctrination and freedom for the majority to do anything but be trapped in low common denominators of thought and behaviour.
I have always tried to live according to my own rules as much as I can so I am probably not a good judge however, or I am biased due to a natural criticism of a society degenerating ever since the Industrial Revolution tore people off the land or since the Ancient Greeks for that matter. And if I had lived then I would have probably disliked it too.
As Samuel Buckett's character said "People are bloody ignorant apes"
- it was ever thus. I shouldn't expect any different. As there are more and more of this strange self-indulgent species on this planet it could hardly be anything but getting worse until we eventually destroy ourselves or our environment...
(I seem to be doing a personal version of the scene in the art gallery)
At least Woody makes me laugh, and he does it IMO without resorting to the lowest common denominator. He looks for meaning in life in his movies, even the early funny ones have serious aspects to their plots.
Bananas for example looks at the foreign policy and legal system in the US for example, and is partly influenced by the great social protests of the time. Sure he only goes to San Marcos to get a girl, but that's why it's a comedy.
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