Humor serves very real and very important psychological and social functions. Humor can help us cope, save face, gain status, test limits, or bond with others. It also provides a topic for serious research by a pair of ASU English professors and their colleagues around the world.
A Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew walk into a bar. Each orders a Screaming Orgasm cocktail…
Be honest, who just got a nervous batch of butterflies after reading that sentence? Feel an extra bit of tension, perhaps? After all, this is a university-produced magazine.
In a time when “political correctness” is the common rule, it’s reasonable to cringe, to wonder if this writer would dare follow through with such a set-up, much less offer a punch line. And what if the joke was actually funny?
Humor can be a serious thing, and a joke can mean different things to different people in different circumstances. When used as a weapon, humor can wound, corrupt, and humiliate. Yet, when used as a tool, humor can establish rapport, educate audiences, and empower people.
Don and Alleen Pace Nilsen have spent the better part of their academic careers studying humor and its effect on culture and society. Both are professors of English at Arizona State University. Political correctness is just one of more than 100 topics they studied during background research for the Encyclopedia of 20th-Century American Humor. The new book is just one of the husband-wife team’s many professional collaborations.
“Humor serves very real and very important psychological and social functions,” says Don Nilsen. He and Alleen founded the International Society for Humor Studies (ISHS) during the 1980s. “Humor is a very positive and effective ego-defense mechanism. It can be used for coping, for saving face, for gaining status, for testing limits, for social control, and for bonding.”
As a society, most individuals have only a limited amount of time to make a point or connect with another person. The stand-up comic works to earn a laugh with his first joke. The college professor must spark an interest in her students during the first lecture. Writers labor to grab a reader in the first paragraph. The political candidate strives to inspire the masses within a sound-byte. Humor and wit often are the means by which people quickly win over audiences. They also can be important tools of persuasion.
“Humor, satire, and irony are often used by a person who is being critical, but who does not want to offend,” he says. “Since these are interactive devices, they build solidarity between the speaker and his audience. People are usually not confrontational when they are part of the process.”
Political correctness is the idea that any language or action that could offend one’s political sensibilities should be eliminated. Political correctness stunts the many positive opportunities that humor has to offer. It is censorship that bans all stereotyping, ethnic jokes, religious humor and vulgarity. Censorship from the conservative Right says we must not use profanity or joke about body parts, bodily functions, or religion. Censorship from the liberal Left spells out a whole different set of taboos, making gender issues and ethnicity entirely off limits.
“When this whole issue of political correctness first came up, we thought, ‘Uh oh,’” recalls Don Nilsen. “We’ve already been censored from the Right, and now we’re going to be censored from the Left, as well. What are we going to be able to say?”
Those who forbid such humor fail to understand just how prevalent it is. The Nilsens say that it can serve positive purposes.
For example, skilled speakers often use ethnic humor to challenge an audience’s assumptions and to surprise listeners by making them bump up against some of their own prejudices. Ultimately, the Nilsens contend, audiences are more receptive to lessons that come with a smile than with a scolding.
“Humor allows us to learn something, because when we’re laughing, we’re not defensive and our minds are open,” says Alleen Nilsen, who recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award from ISHS for her scholarship and service. “It’s kind of naive of people to dismiss all stereotypes as bad, because they’re not. But we also have to take people beyond the stereotypes and teach them something new.”
Many contemporary comedians and humorists have achieved fame and fortune by using ethnic humor and stereotyping—even vulgarity—to win over audiences. African-American comedians like Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Whoopi Goldberg, and Chris Rock get laughs from diverse audiences, often by teasing them about their prejudices. Humor writers such as Dave Barry and the late Erma Bombeck have parodied sex, marriage, and parenthood in ways that allow readers to laugh at the stereotypes and also see beyond them.
Of course, ethnic humor and stereotyping can range from playful teasing to hostile hate speech. Therein lies the problem.
“How humor is received depends on who you target. It depends on your attitude and your audience, it depends on many things,” says Don Nilsen.
Humor’s effectiveness also depends largely upon its goal; whether it is intended as a tool or as a weapon. According to the Nilsens, jokes directed toward a particular group from an individual within that group are considered more palatable, even beneficial. Such humor can expand the horizons of the group and perhaps allow them to see themselves in an objective light.
However, humor that is from someone outside the group—especially from someone who is hostile toward them—tends to do the opposite. Such humor shrinks the horizons, makes the group smaller and more sensitive to criticism.
During its infancy, any particular group or movement is particularly sensitive to criticism, Don Nilsen explains. Still, to say that one should never poke fun at a particular gender, religion, or ethnic group is a discredit to them, he contends.
“When you say a group shouldn’t be criticized or joked about, what you’re really saying is they’re not strong enough to take it,” he says. “By not teasing, you’re making them invisible. But by teasing them, you’re saying they’re strong enough. They’re your equal. They can tease back. It’s empowering.”
Once a movement becomes secure enough to take criticism and accept teasing, it’s an indication that it has grown, evolved, and gained strength from its uniqueness. The Jewish culture is a prime example, says Don. Much of his research has focused on Jewish humor. The ASU scholar is a principal advisor for a three-hour documentary being produced for public television titled “A Gift of Laughter: Comedy and the Jews.”
Several pages of the Nilsen’s encyclopedia are devoted to Jewish humor, its evolution, and its impact on American humor. It notes that while Jews constitute a small percentage of the U.S. population, they also comprise a large percentage of the nation’s professional comedians.
Some famous Jewish comedians did not or do not use their religious background as fodder for their jokes. Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Jerry Lewis, and Roseanne Barr are examples. However, Woody Allen, Rita Rudner, Jerry Seinfeld and others frequently mine their heritage for material.
Comedienne Elayne Boosler, the Nilsens write, gives a new twist to an old Jewish stereotype when she jokes, “My brother’s gay. My parents don’t mind as long as he marries a doctor.”
The Nilsen’s point out that the idea of political correctness began to take shape during the 1960s and 1970s, as people’s social consciousness and general distaste for stereotyping grew. Yet, by the 1990s, the pendulum had already begun to swing back. As a result, “pc” had been around long enough to become fair game itself for America’s comedians and humorists.
Consider recent television shows like Comedy Central’s “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher.” The show aspired to push its viewers’ sensibilities to the max. Such is our need to laugh with others, even if it means laughing at ourselves.
“We just can’t get rid of humor,” Alleen concludes. “It’s so basic to human life.”
So, exactly how many journalists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Four—one to change the bulb, and three to distort the facts.—Jessica McCann
