Do Better
About comedy, that South Park episode, and Robert Reich's caption contest.
Comedy can be a fantastic tool for resistance, standing up to power, and speaking out against oppression. We can use comedy to discuss current issues. It is one of the best ways we have to make sense of a world that at times feels cold and nonsensical.
We can brandish comedy as a sharp tool in our efforts to make our world a little better, a little more bearable.
But, if we are not careful, comedy becomes a blunt instrument. An instrument we swing recklessly, creating destruction in our wake. We can perpetuate the violence, oppression, and actions we are purportedly against. And worse, we often use it to shield ourselves from our own privilege and accountability.
We become a tool of the oppressor instead of its foil.
This week, I saw two clear examples of that in purportedly liberal/progressive circles. The first episode of season 27 of South Park and entries in Robert Reich's July 27th caption contest.
Both South Park and the caption contest entries use comedy to make fun of donald trump. In many ways, they are doing what comedy is supposed to do: speak up to power and punch up. And were both celebrated in many anti-trump circles.
But what is missing from the discourse around them is the active harm they are doing. Both of them gratuitously used slurs, fatphobia, homophobia, and ableism. They repeatedly used slurs against the disabled and queer communities. They used disability and disabled people as negative descriptors. As reasons to make fun of someone. All in the name of comedy.
And they were celebrated for it. Many self-described liberal, progressive, or 'woke' folks praised and shared these pieces of comedy because they were making fun of the administration. They made themselves feel good because they were "standing up and speaking up against tyranny". But at the same time, they ignored the ableism that was being perpetuated and reinforced.
And many of them defended this! And not only with the tired arguments of "free Speech," or "it's just comedy," or "no harm was intended." Many of the defenses offered relied on the argument of "It's trump, so he deserves it", or "trump is *****, so it's okay if I call him that," or "he has done worse, so..."
They did not blink at the irony or dissonance of criticizing trump and the administration by using the same behaviors and words they use.
You cannot fight oppression and injustice by perpetuating oppression and injustice.
You must not stand up and speak up while enacting violence on those who are more oppressed than you.
We are never justified in using the oppressor's tools, as we will perpetuate the harm they wrought.
Always Punch up.
Do better.