TelevIsm: Not Just A Joke

On Thursday, I wrote about what makes a joke that depicts oppression in action effectively critical. Today, I’m going to look at how to define what makes a joke that depicts and enforces the kyriarchy, and give you just a few of the INNUMERABLE examples of this.

I’m using South Park and Family Guy for examples because these shows have humor that’s often rooted in the belief that some bodies (hint: cis, straight, able, and male ones) are worth more than others. I actually am a pretty big fan of South Park and think it’s often funny, smart, innovative and occasionally though not usually insightful. I used to find Family Guy pretty funny, but now I only watch it out of habit. I don’t really know why.

So, here is my first condition for a problematic joke: this identifies those that are hurtful because they are not rebutted.

IF a character on a television reflects or reinforces the kyriarchy through problematic/loaded language or actions.
AND the joke is ignored, applauded or otherwise validated by another character
THEN the joke constitutes a reinforcement of kyriarchy in society.

In the South Park clip above, Cartman, posing as a robot, runs from a situation where he is about to be sexually assaulted yelling “LAME, NOT COOL, TOTALLY LAME.” There’s a lot more to unpack in this situation than just the use of an ableist perjorative word, but that specific choice of language is in and of itself an offensive joke.

Lame is used often in this show, and no one comments on the word’s offensive nature.This is commonplace hurtful language that is used humorously often on South Park. It’s not the worst joke ever, but it’s one small way in which hurtful language is made normal and commonplace, for kids to use on the schoolyard and against each other. It helps make a word used a describe people with disabilities as a catch-all insult; the origin of the word is not insignificant to its status as an insult.

In the Family Guy clip above, Meg is in a coma. Peter is upset because he “didn’t treat her as well as he should have.” Then, Peter is showing harassing, tripping, and shooting Meg. Lois reacts with, “Don’t feel too bad, we all have regrets,” validating Peter’s violence towards his daughter as not a big deal (note: violence in general and against women in particular is a big deal).

I realize that this is supposed to be humorous, but it’s humor based in the idea that violence against women is not a big problem worth taking seriously; this joke and the show are predicated on the belief that women are worth less and it’s not a big deal to devalue us.

My second condition for a problematic joke defines a different kind of context and interaction. The kind of joke I describe above is pretty passive; it’s letting oppression slide rather than actively striving to defend or perpetuate it. The kind of joke I seek to define below is about defending systems of inequality against critique.

IF a character on a television reflects or reinforces the kyriarchy through problematic/loaded language or actions
AND the joke is critiqued or rebutted by another character
BUT the rebuttal is framed as silly, unreasonable, or otherwise invalid
THEN the joke constitutes a reinforcement of kyriarchy in society.

In this South Park scene, Gerald Brofloski reacts to Kyle’s reporting that his teacher has come out as a trans woman with disgust and anger. Sheila Brofloski explains to her son Kyle (in a rather inarticulate and not particularly helpful way) that trans people are okay and should be respected.

Outside of the context of this episode, this exchange would be okay, though far from perfect. But this is in an episode called “Mr. Garrison’s Fancy New Vagina,” in which the boy’s teacher decides to transition to being a woman on a whim (because that is exactly how the transition process works). Subsequently, Kyle decides to have surgery to become black and his father Gerald decides to transition to being a dolphin. The moral of the episode is basically that trans women are just “[men] with mutilated penis[es]” and that what they do with their body is wrong and against nature. In light of these dehumanizing and racist comparisons, Sheila’s attitudes and ideals are meant to be seen as silly and ridiculous – just like trans people! Though hateful attitudes are countered, the response is erased by the rhetoric of this horrific episode and its clear distaste for her willingness to treat people with respect.

Now, here’s what I guess a few of you are thinking: “It’s just a joke, it’s not a big deal, there are more important things.”. These are jokes! And there are a lot of other, probably more serious issues! But, you know what? Violence against women, ableism, transphobia – these things are big deals, and they do hurt people. And these shows perpetuate that. Kyle’s, Stan’s, and Cartman’s constant and uncritical use of ableist language makes people think that that is funny and okay to use. Rape jokes make people think that rape is okay. Racist jokes make people think that racism isn’t a real problem. Presenting an episode devoted to showing how silly and fake trans people are helps people justify hatred, discrimination, and even violence against a lot of marginalized people.

Discrimination should not be erased in cultural representations of our world. It is a constant presence in our world, and that should be reflected in the things that make us laugh. Laughing and relaxing through watching comedy can make the fight against the kyriarchy easier to take. But sometimes jokes that depict social injustice also reinforce it, make it normal and okay, trivialize it.

This seems like a lot of rules for how to and not to make jokes out of something very common: oppression. And it is a lot of rules. But oppression is serious, and jokes about it need to be very carefully considered, or they become fuel for kyriarchy’s fire.