[quote=“foxwhowood, post:55, topic:182043”]
I think one reason right-wing humor is seldom funny is that topical humor involves arguing for changing the status quo. [/quote]
Except they want to preserve the status quo, which is on the side of the powerful. They are bullies, punching down, over, and over, and over again.
Did he do literally any of his comedy in the Soviet Union?
Oy, quotes are getting messed up here but I tried. Anyway, I think you and fox are on the same page.
And right. Yakov’s a poor example. Comedy under authoritarian regimes tends to leak out in very subversive ways which, to the people being oppressed, ends up being much much funnier.
In Burma there was a famous troupe called the Mustache Brothers. In one of the phases where Aung San Suu Kyi was temporarily free, they performed at a public event in her honor. They had already been imprisoned and tortured. They announced at the start of the act that they knew what they were about to do would cost them dearly, but that they still couldn’t help themselves, and proceed to excoriate the regime. This was now the era where everyone had cameras and many had phone cameras and it went out everywhere. Sure enough, they got tossed back in prison. Tears of laughter and horror often went hand in hand.
My brother in law had been imprisoned five times and was able to get out after learning they were on the hunt for him again due to a misunderstanding (long story). He was talking about the torture when someone asked “and what did you say or do?”
“More, please!”
When my preteen nephew tasted a superhot pepper, he said “well, that wasn’t too bad. Um. By the way… Do you think I could have a glass of water?” He became my brother in law’s favorite person.
In soviet occupied Poland, the arts were treated as being totally independent even with government funding. The government didn’t want to use movie posters from the west (including for westerns) so they had the Polish arts council generate the movie posters, and the artists made subtle and not so digs at military rule and militancy in general.
It expressed and helped generate a love for western films and the same art later showed up in the solidarity movement.
I’m so grateful for your comment because I went for the link and found a new hardcover for under $7 and snatched it up. It was going for $60 before.
The point is talking about people who are inclined towards the right political tend to punch down, which is bullying. It’s not comedy aimed at mocking right wing regimes. If someone is making fun of women, or trans people, or people of color, they are not in favor of equality and human dignity. They are aligned with power, not the oppressed.
I was going to remark that live RWA types, like dead puppies, aren’t much fun. But then I got to thinking, “What could be more vulnerable than a puppy?” (Ok, tomatoes, but you get the point). Have I been a rotten bastard all these years for humming “Dead Puppies” to myself in crowded elevators? And what of other beloved Dr. Demento hits? “My Dead Dog Rover” glorifies animal abuse, “They’re Coming to Take Me Away” mocks mental illness, and “Pencil Neck Geek” is a paean to anti-intellectualism. How could I have been a dupe all these years???
Seriously, though, there is a certain whimsy or playfulness in Demento songs that can never be attained by Limbaugh, Dennis Miller, and other self-important arseholes. If Limbaugh played “Dead Puppies” on his show (and for all I know, he does), it would be to very different effect than on Demento. It would be weaponized to mock the libs.
Not only is the right not funny, but the lack of self-awareness often means any attempts at humor become an unintentional self-own.
Common example is a bad picture of some lefty boogeyman like Bernie or AOC with a list of all the “awful” things they want (like clean air and water, equality, living wage, and other commie things like that) and all I can do is nod and think to myself, “this all sounds great!”
You’re right, a hundred percent. Not to mention people with debilitating illnesses who happen to disagree with them. I was introducing the other/underdog side of that which maybe belongs in another thread.
What you’re talking about is what we’re also seeing in the ads and has been an element of the constant hatestream from lionized conservative voices over the past few decades. One thing they are doing to justify it is trying to occupy that “oppressed”/underdog place.
I think they saw in the success of the left (or really middle stream) by which the illumination of human suffering led to real changes, and so they saw cache in being seen as a victim. Which is to say, many of them think they have successfully sold this, and many many others have genuinely bought into it, and a great many followers of the authoritarians can no longer even perceive that they are “punching down.”
And this is why Lord Dampnut is POTUS today.
Ever notice his priorites have been to obliterate everything Obama did?
Vengence is one of Lord Dampnut’s prime motivators.
If Biden (or anyone else) really wanted to get under his skin, all they have to do is laugh at him.
Loudly, publically, and mercilessly.
They do and Obama did, and we all know now that Trump was not amused.
Laughing at Trump won’t get him out the WH. Voting will.
There is also a reason why older jokes and right wing jokes (not the same thing but effing close) don’t work anymore on many liberal/modern/civilised people.
A joke is a story but by necessity a very short one. This is why when you introduce a person in a joke you cast for short descriptors or archetypes that you know you audience will flesh out using their own biases and generalisations. The more pronounced and typical those generalisations are the better the jokes work…
This doesn’t work if a person has less biases, or at least knows these biases for what they are and are not led by them.A joke beginning with “A black man, a jew, and a catholic priest walk into a bar…” only works on people who think this sentence contains a lot of reliable data on that group.
Where did I say that laughing at him will get him out of office?
Unless, of course, it causes his blood pressure to rise to dangerous levels (with the obvious possible side effects)… or makes him so unhinged that the 25th Amendment finally gets invoked.
Not betting money on it, either way. But if it makes him angry, so much the better. I’m not happy unless he’s not happy.
Yes, of course, VOTE, dammit. I think 4(+) more years of Lord Dampnut will be worse than most people can imagine…
It’s hard to play both king and fool on the same stage without breaking character? Or… maybe it’s just not fun to watch that kind of cognitive dissonance.
Me getting a paper-cut on my hand is a tragedy. Someone else getting a hand devoured in a garbage disposal is comedy. Ever was it so. RWAs like to stick other people’s hands into grinders. That’s their fun.
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