3 Ideas in 2 Minutes on Dark Humor
Anatomy of a Joke, Deeper Meaning of a Joke & The Joke
I. Anatomy of a Joke
Rogue comedian, actor and director Ricky Gervais on the difference between the subject of a joke and its target:
Joking about bad things isn’t the same as doing bad things. The joke may not even be condoning bad things. It could be damming them. It depends on the actual joke. The subject of a joke and the target of a joke can be different. Being offended doesn’t prove the joke is wrong.
II. Deeper Meaning of a Joke
Rogue philosopher Slavoj Žižek illustrates the timeless significance of an old East German joke:
In an old joke from the defunct German Democratic Republic, a German worker gets a job in Siberia; aware of how all mail will be read by censors, he tells his friends: “Let's establish a code: if a letter you will get from me is written in ordinary blue ink, it is true; if it is written in red ink, it is false.” After a month, his friends get the first letter, written in blue ink: “Everything is wonderful here: stores are full, food is abundant, apartments are large and properly heated, movie theaters show films from the West, there are many beautiful girls ready for an affair — the only thing unavailable is red ink.”
And is this not our situation till now? We have all the freedoms one wants — the only thing missing is the ‘red ink’. We ‘feel free’ because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom. What this lack of red ink means is that, today, all the main terms we use to designate the present conflict — ‘war on terror,’ ‘democracy and freedom,’ ‘human rights,’ etc. — are false terms, mystifying our perception of the situation instead of allowing us to think it. The task today is to give the protesters red ink.
—Slavoj Žižek, Big Think
III. The Joke
Rogue Czech writer Milan Kundera on the power of mockery:
No great movement designed to change the world can bear to be laughed at or belittled. Mockery is a rust that corrodes all it touches.
—Milan Kundera, The Joke
🐘
Have a great week,
Chris
themindcollection.com