This one was long overdue, because I wanted to explain things to you in a way that would help you understand.
First of all in terms of my views on comedy. I was born on April Fools Day, so that pretty much sums it up. Either people think I have a great sense of humour or make me an easy target for pranks whether it's lighthearted jabs or mean spirited ridicule.
In terms of my sense of Humour, it varies. Some jokes I make are pretty funny and hilarious. However others are swing and a miss. A problem many comedians share. So to better sum up my views I will break things down.
Favourite Genres:
Slapstick, Classic, Stand-up, Satire and Dark Comedy to name a few are my favourite Genres, but to me they must be done the right way for it to work. The Three Stooges for example, are a great example of Slapstick Comedy. Mainly because the injuries are overshadowed by the sounds made as well as the sounds the stooges themselves Make. Classic Comedy I think still has a place in the modern world because regardless of the content, it reminds us just how old Comedy in general can be. Some people would prefer George Burns over Chris Rock. Stand-Up Comedy is great because I feel it allows the comedians to not only come up with funny antics of their lives but also allow them to vent any anger and frustration they feel about said lives while giving the audience a good laugh. Satire is hit or miss for me because it depends on the context of the satire. Dark Comedy I like because you can take the darkest topics of the world and make it funny if done right.
Views On What's Funny:
When it comes to the Genres Above, most of the time it's the subject matter that gets tricky. A lot of us have our own views on what's funny or not and a lot of us have our own views on what we think the joke is supposed to mean as opposed to the comedian's in general. Before I get into it further, there are three rules of Comedy:
- Timing. Doing the right joke at the right time is sure to bring a lot of laughs.
- No Subject is Taboo. Either all are funny or none are funny, however this rule gets abused too much which I will get to later.
- The most important one. It's always funny until someone gets hurt. Which on top of the second rule can often happen. But I will get to that later.
Now when you get down to it, a lot of comedy movies and shows from the 50s to now have often gotten famous for pushing the envelope and surprising their audience with something new to throw them off guard. It could be something as simple as saying something you couldn't say on TV before or it could touch on a subject very few talked about before.
Cue Comedians like Mel Brooks and Norman Lear. Both of which are heavily into satire among most comedies and a lot of people have taken their messages the wrong way. And none so blatant as Brooks' Blazing Saddles and Lear's famous sitcom All In The Family:
Now to a modern audience, they would think these shows promote Racism and that anyone that watches and enjoys them, are racists. However what they fail to realize is the context behind these shows and characters. In the case of them both, Brooks and Lear came up with a way to battle Racism, by having their worst characters express it in such an over the top way, that audience members would think they were too stupid or too silly to take seriously. Meaning that. And while it did work for Blazing Saddles once some audiences got through watching the movie from beginning to end, it didn't work so well with All In The Family. That is until I saw some reaction videos. In the case of All In The Family it was a happy accident. When it first started out a lot of the wrong people latched on to Archie Bunker, despite him initially being the sitcom villain of the show. When Lear realized a lot of people loved Archie, rather than try to tell the audience they were stupid he did what most creators rarely do and tweaked the character. Archie initially started out as downright malicious, before they simply made him just naively ignorant. During his final show Archie Bunker's Place it all culminated into an iconic scene that would have made a lot of people proud while still maintaining a humorous show:
So in short on that one when it comes to subjects like racism in comedy. I veer towards all the ones that do anti-racism. It allows you to hear the words, but at the same time helps you realize how stupid the words are.
Same with subjects that are just as touchy like Rape and Murder.
In the case of Murder. Murder can be funny in terms of dark comedy, but at the same time some people go to far in their comedy when they base their murder scenes off real life kills. Such as Simpsons making fun of Charles Whitman:
Now to be fair on the writers, they were simply invoking that Ned hated Homer so much that he saw everyone as Homer and wanted to kill them. That's funny, but when I looked up where this was based off of, it became less funny to me. Now I'm not saying you can't use real life murders even the most taboo of them, for comedy. Lord knows if done right, you got yourself a great bit of satire on top of that. However if your whole comedy was based solely on recreating the murder and less on the comedic context you were trying to plan, then that's not being funny. That's being a sick bastard to me.
Same goes with jokes based off Rape. Now George Carlin had already gone through the rules on what it takes to make that subject funny and to the credit of most comedians, from stand up to Newgrounds, they followed those rules well and no one got hurt:
However like many taboo subjects some comedians or assholes that think they're funny, take things too far.
Case in point James Gunn. Now whether you're against him or defending him, things must be addressed. I do believe he meant every word on those disgusting "jokes" of his, however that's no the point, you're entitled to disagree with me on this. However, the thing that pissed me off, about the whole thing was that he was telling "Pro-Rape Jokes." Much like Racism there are Pro and Anti-Rape jokes. Anti-Racism jokes go through great lengths including but not limited to various uses of the slurs and actions to show how stupid racism is. Pro-Racism jokes is that the punch line is the race that the racist telling the joke hates. Anti-Rape jokes go so far as showing the full scene to show how bad it is and how wrong the rapists are for doing what they do. Pro-Rape jokes were created by Rapists whom use them to try to normalize rape to people, in an effort to take down anti-rape laws. It's a form of satire that disgusts me because said satire is saying "You're the freak if you aren't gonna go through great lengths to fuck someone." Gunn's jokes were pro-rape and I don't give a fuck how many people like Slither, Scooby-Doo or Guardians of The Galaxy. He should answer for that shit and not get a slap on the wrist.
Now that pretty much sums up my views on Pro- and Anti- stuff. The one "comedy" I cannot for the life of me stand is this new thing going around for the past 20 years. The Comedy where people act like assholes to each other in public, then when called out for it, they backtrack claiming they were joking. I don't know what kind of sick fucks you have to be to find that funny but it's not. We live in a world where if we say the wrong thing at the wrong time that we get cancelled for various reasons. So needless to say even if you assholes were joking, you're not helping the situation, you're making it worse. Confusing people and laughing at them about it isn't funny. Yelling at someone on the net or in public is not funny. It's sick and it's wrong and has to be stopped. And for those who think I don't have a sense of humour simply because I don't find that funny. Fuck you. You broke the rules of comedy, you're not funny. You're nothing but a bunch of loser bullies waiting to pounce on anyone that ruins your fun then goes through great lengths to destroy them simply because they don't find you funny. Newsflash. The world doesn't revolve around you so stop revolving around others who clearly don't like you.
With that said, other than that, comedy is something we really need in these troubling times. Take care, be safe and have a laugh.