The other day, I tweeted a joke that I didn't even come up with. One of my friends said to my cute and not fat-boyfriend that he was "eating like Adele right now." After I tweeted it, I got more @ replies than for anything I've ever tweeted, and people apparently thought I was a mean girl for insinuating that Adele eats a lot. Besides the fact that I was just the delivery boy of a funny joke and not the one who said it, I was really confused because I thought it was hilarious. Why didn't everyone else think it was hilarious? More importantly, why doesn't everyone else think exactly like me?!
I used to have very strict boundaries about what was funny vs. what you couldn't joke about, much like I used to have very strict boundaries about what you could and could not talk about. Now, I just have very strict boundaries about not eating meat, and that's about it. Everything else is up for negotiation, even the necessity of a 'safety word.' As time went on and I grew to appreciate really funny (and offensive) people like Sarah Silverman or Chelsea Handler, I realized that you can say things that are insanely offensive and still be really funny.
I genuinely think anything can be made into a joke. In fact, I think everything should be made into a joke. This includes but is not limited to:
I used to have very strict boundaries about what was funny vs. what you couldn't joke about, much like I used to have very strict boundaries about what you could and could not talk about. Now, I just have very strict boundaries about not eating meat, and that's about it. Everything else is up for negotiation, even the necessity of a 'safety word.' As time went on and I grew to appreciate really funny (and offensive) people like Sarah Silverman or Chelsea Handler, I realized that you can say things that are insanely offensive and still be really funny.
I genuinely think anything can be made into a joke. In fact, I think everything should be made into a joke. This includes but is not limited to:
- Abortion, AKA Baby Killing.
- AIDS.
- Gay people, who get AIDS.
- Africans, who stole AIDS from gay people.
- The Holocaust.
- September 11th, or lil baby American Holocaust.
- Holocaust deniers.
- Lil baby American Holocaust deniers and conspiracy theorists.
- Religion, Jesus Fucking Christ.
- Michele Bachmann and her one man gay pride parade of a husband, Marcus.
- Black people.
- Asian people.
- Mexican (see also: all Latino) people.
- White people. There are not enough jokes about how fucking stupid white people are.
- Racists.
- Women.
- Fat women.
- Fat people in general.
- People in wheelchairs, especially fat people in wheelchairs.
- Severely disabled people.
- People who have experienced earth-shattering tragedies.
- Rednecks, AKA people whose entire lives are earth-shattering tragedies.
- Natural disasters, AKA Rednecks.
- Ugly people.
- Ugly, fat people, AKA Rednecks.
- Chris Brown and Gwyneth Paltrow, who are equals in my book.
- Men. Especially straight white ones, who are usually the ones making jokes about all the aforementioned items on this list.
Now, there is really nothing inherently funny about any of these subjects, except maybe Gwyneth Paltrow, but it's a grating kind of funny that really makes you want to poke needles in your eyes. These subjects become funny when placed in a context, when the right timing is applied, and when delivered to the right audience (which is debatable to me - I think everyone should be open to finding everything funny). Someone could make a joke about AIDS and it could come off as extremely offensive, in bad taste, and just plain mean. That joke failed. Someone else could make the same joke and it would be hilarious and life-affirming (funny - considering it's AIDS and all).
I think to be funny, you have to be able to make light of the most god-awful and horrible things. It's not easy to do, and some shots are cheaper than others, but the truth is there is literally humor in everything. Personally, I like trying to find humor in the things that no one ever wants to talk about. Because at the end of the day, it really is just plain stupid that we exist with these taboos, when if we blew them all out of the water, we would never get caught up in the seriousness of life. At least not as often.
And even if someone's initial reaction is to be too shocked to laugh, if they come upon it later and think "that was actually kinda funny," it was successful. I don't necessarily want you to laugh immediately, even though instant gratification is nice, but if I get you to later on loosen up and laugh at something, I'll be pleased as punch.
For example, I don't generally find "fag" jokes funny, especially from straight people. It's my instinct to be suspicious and when my instinct is to be suspicious, I'm clearly too busy to be thinking about funny it is. I also call this defensive. There are things I'm defensive about. I know, up until this exact moment, you thought I was perfect. I'm very sorry. I will try to be better for you and not be such a faggot.
So, for me it's all about who you are, where you come from, and what you went through. If you're a black girl who grew up in the projects and if those things bother you a little bit, it probably would rub you the wrong way to see a white guy appropriating your dialect and supposed mannerisms for the sake of a joke. It rubs me the wrong way too, and I'm not a black girl. (Again, I'm not perfect.) But there is also probably some humor in that somewhere if we look hard enough, it's just about how far we're willing to let ourselves look.
Speaking of looking, look - if you're a semi-informed person (i.e. more informed than any Republican) who is making a joke because you have the social comprehension to understand why it's funny and also why people wouldn't find it funny, you're probably going to be okay at telling jokes. If you just say things like "Paging Dr. Faggot" because a guy is slightly effeminate, then I think you're dumb. That joke took zero effort and really isn't clever at all. Or it could be hilarious and I just have a dick up my ass, being a fag and all.
I never apologize for a joke I make anymore, at least not seriously. I learned that from the comedy greats who told me not to. They are making money, so I think they're probably right. I was tempted to even go on the defensive and apologize for the Adele joke, but I realized how stupid it was and how much it cheapens the joke. I actually think the joke works better (even though it's not my joke) if I become this asshole character who really thinks Adele is fat and eats a lot. In actuality, I think Adele is a bombshell and she could get it if I wasn't such a faggot. But that's just not as funny as thinking about her gorging herself on 5 McDonalds Fish Fillets before a show because she's nervous. And then it's like wait - what if all these songs about her relationships are really songs about her relationship with food? "Never mind, I'll find someone like foooooood."
In all seriousness (ugh), my only problem with comedy is that more people aren't making jokes about straight, white men. This very well may be because these assholes are such an easy target, so no one ever wants to tell jokes about them. It may also be because for so long, these are the people who have been privileged enough to make jokes, so they have done themselves a service by making it the norm to joke about disenfranchised people. Either way, they are an underserved population and something should be done about it. I recommend we kill them all, except the nice ones, which in my experience has been like, 10.
I am genuinely curious, so I pose this question to you, all of you people who apparently read my blog but are too shy to comment: What things do you not find funny? And is there any way you might one day be able to laugh about it? Or are you too fat to laugh?
I think to be funny, you have to be able to make light of the most god-awful and horrible things. It's not easy to do, and some shots are cheaper than others, but the truth is there is literally humor in everything. Personally, I like trying to find humor in the things that no one ever wants to talk about. Because at the end of the day, it really is just plain stupid that we exist with these taboos, when if we blew them all out of the water, we would never get caught up in the seriousness of life. At least not as often.
And even if someone's initial reaction is to be too shocked to laugh, if they come upon it later and think "that was actually kinda funny," it was successful. I don't necessarily want you to laugh immediately, even though instant gratification is nice, but if I get you to later on loosen up and laugh at something, I'll be pleased as punch.
For example, I don't generally find "fag" jokes funny, especially from straight people. It's my instinct to be suspicious and when my instinct is to be suspicious, I'm clearly too busy to be thinking about funny it is. I also call this defensive. There are things I'm defensive about. I know, up until this exact moment, you thought I was perfect. I'm very sorry. I will try to be better for you and not be such a faggot.
So, for me it's all about who you are, where you come from, and what you went through. If you're a black girl who grew up in the projects and if those things bother you a little bit, it probably would rub you the wrong way to see a white guy appropriating your dialect and supposed mannerisms for the sake of a joke. It rubs me the wrong way too, and I'm not a black girl. (Again, I'm not perfect.) But there is also probably some humor in that somewhere if we look hard enough, it's just about how far we're willing to let ourselves look.
Speaking of looking, look - if you're a semi-informed person (i.e. more informed than any Republican) who is making a joke because you have the social comprehension to understand why it's funny and also why people wouldn't find it funny, you're probably going to be okay at telling jokes. If you just say things like "Paging Dr. Faggot" because a guy is slightly effeminate, then I think you're dumb. That joke took zero effort and really isn't clever at all. Or it could be hilarious and I just have a dick up my ass, being a fag and all.
I never apologize for a joke I make anymore, at least not seriously. I learned that from the comedy greats who told me not to. They are making money, so I think they're probably right. I was tempted to even go on the defensive and apologize for the Adele joke, but I realized how stupid it was and how much it cheapens the joke. I actually think the joke works better (even though it's not my joke) if I become this asshole character who really thinks Adele is fat and eats a lot. In actuality, I think Adele is a bombshell and she could get it if I wasn't such a faggot. But that's just not as funny as thinking about her gorging herself on 5 McDonalds Fish Fillets before a show because she's nervous. And then it's like wait - what if all these songs about her relationships are really songs about her relationship with food? "Never mind, I'll find someone like foooooood."
In all seriousness (ugh), my only problem with comedy is that more people aren't making jokes about straight, white men. This very well may be because these assholes are such an easy target, so no one ever wants to tell jokes about them. It may also be because for so long, these are the people who have been privileged enough to make jokes, so they have done themselves a service by making it the norm to joke about disenfranchised people. Either way, they are an underserved population and something should be done about it. I recommend we kill them all, except the nice ones, which in my experience has been like, 10.
I am genuinely curious, so I pose this question to you, all of you people who apparently read my blog but are too shy to comment: What things do you not find funny? And is there any way you might one day be able to laugh about it? Or are you too fat to laugh?
No comments:
Post a Comment