by Ray Karaczun
Part Three
During a 1993 Nirvana concert, an audience member sexually assaulted another audience member. Fast-thinking, feminist Kurt Cobain stopped playing mid-performance to rush over and break them up, earning cheers from the concert-goers. Then, the other clever band members took it a step up by pointing fingers at, laughing at, and repeating “how does it feel?” to the failed attempter as he tried to slip away, invoking more cheers from the audience.
If you know anything about sexual assault, you know that it is not always done out of sexual urge, but also to feel powerful and in control. If this assaulter was treated like a criminal, he oddly may have felt satisfied and proud due to others reinforcing that he is dangerous. But since several people gave him a taste of his own medicine and degraded him back, he was left powerless.
How does this relate to offensive humor? According to superiority theory, humor is savage and evolutionary. While laughing, we bare teeth, unleash a roar of triumph, and scorn others. We present ourselves to be dominant over something weaker than us. Bigoted people often use comedy to humiliate and degrade others, which simultaneously uplifts themselves – but the ability to do so goes both ways. Threats lose power when they are treated as laughing stocks, thus enabling the oppressed to become the empowered.
Satire nails this reclaiming of power. An excellent example is the 2019 film Jojo Rabbit directed by and starring Taika Waititi. This WWII movie is told from the perspective of a young German boy so indoctrinated and infatuated with Nazi propaganda that his imaginary friend is Adolf Hitler. Traditionally in film, that fascist dictator is understandably portrayed as scary, angry, and dangerous. This is exactly what Nazis of the past and present would have agreed with and wanted to see. But Taika Waititi took a bold and creative leap by depicting him to be goofy. “... I couldn’t be more excited to finally ridicule Nazis and their beliefs. This film is going to piss off a lot of racists and that makes me very happy.” Taika Waititi plays the racist himself, stating “... what better way to insult Hitler than having him portrayed by a Polynesian Jew?”
Note that this film does not take WWII or the Holocaust lightly, as that would be insulting to victims. The mockery exclusively targets Hitler to debase him into a joke, which is insulting to Nazis, who deserve to be humbled.
Lots of minority comedians use their platform to challenge or get even with majorities: Eddie Murphy makes fun of white people, Harvey Fierstein makes fun of straight people, and Roseanne Barr makes fun of men. Humor is an important aspect of some cultures like Judaism and the disabled community because it is a coping mechanism – so it is only right to continue to allow these groups to work their craft and utilize it against their oppressor.
Superiority theory is applicable to offensive humor as it involves ridicule. To ridicule a subject for being inferior, the one laughing must consider themselves to be superior. Supremacists are power-hungry. While degrading others, they uplift themselves. One way they go about doing so is through ridicule. Treating them as vicious people cements their belief in their own power. Therefore, using their own strategy against them flips the script, reclaiming power to the powerless.
Sources
The Film Stage. (2018, June 1). First look at Taika Waititi as Hitler in his anti-war satire ‘Jojo Rabbit.’ The Film Stage. https://thefilmstage.com/first-look-at-taika-waititi-as-hitler-in-his-anti-war-satire-jojo-rabbit/
Grungemaker. (2017, October 2). Kurt Cobain stops a sexual assault [video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YWbrTzkSQM
Morreall, J. (Ed.). (1987). The philosophy of laugher and humor. State University of New York Press, Albany.
Segal, D. (1992, May 11). Excuuuse me: the case for offensive humor. The New Republic, 206(19), 9. https://eds.s.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=e7dd462a-cf6a-40f6-87d2-43e093630499%40redis&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPXNzbyZzaXRlPWVkcy1saXZlJnNjb3BIPX NpdGU%3d#AN=edsgcl.12226695&db=edsgis
Waititi, T. (Director). (2019). Jojo Rabbit [Film]. Fox Searchlight Pictures.
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