That’s Not Funny! Why Humor Matters…

Humor is one of the wonders of the Homo sapiens world. It has the potential to bridge social gaps, heal personal wounds, expand rigid minds, and open shut hearts by showing us what is essential in life – in our common humanity – through alternative perspectives.

But just as biological creatures need oxygen to breathe, humor needs freedom to stay alive. Unfortunately, we are quickly moving into a social environment where humor is being shackled by ideological ideas of right and wrong. Late-night hosts are being sued by politicians they lampoon. And stand-up comedians are being barred from appearing on college campuses.

Even on a pedestrian level, humor is being threatened by big-tech censorship and cancel culture on social media platforms. The test of a good joke is no longer whether it makes you laugh. It must do so without breaking any rules of political/ideological correctness. And heaven forbid it offend the feelings of even the most sensitive of souls.

I had a conversation last week about this with a little salon I belong to called Whiskey Wednesdays. We were talking about comedians – the really great comedians, like Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce, George Carlin and Bill Hicks. We agreed that most of their best routines would be verboten today.  (Click here for a rant from Bill Hicks that would almost certainly be prohibited or canceled.)

That’s a shame. Great comedy – the kind that does all the things mentioned above – cannot exist in autocracies and tyrannies. (As one of its first acts upon taking over Afghanistan, the Taliban outlawed comedy. I fear that we near that point now.)

Those that favor censorship of comedy make the argument that the humor should be treated like other forms of public speech. It should be allowed so long as it doesn’t defame individuals, including public individuals, as well as groups of individuals or even, in some cases, corporate entities.

Indeed, there is protection from harmful speech that is established in our legal system. It is called defamation law. But there is a difference between satire – humor that is meant to criticize and insult – and defamation.

What is defamation? 

Defamation is the act of making written or oral remarks about someone or some legal entity (like a corporation) that are both intentionally derisive and also provably false.

 There is nothing illegal with saying something pejorative that is demonstrably true. And there is nothing illegal about making a false statement that is not negative. But most countries have laws against defamation.

According to The Business Litigators website, the tort of defamation (sometimes referred to as defamation of character) can be divided into claims involving two distinct types of statements: defamatory per se statements and defamatory per quod statements.

“Statements that are defamatory per se (sometimes referred to generically by courts as libel per se) are so obviously and naturally harmful to one’s reputation on their face that proof of injury is not required.”

For example:

* Imputing that a person committed a crime;

* Imputing that a person is infected with a loathsome communicable disease;

* Imputing that a person is unable or lacks the integrity to perform their employment duties;

* Imputing that a person lacks ability or otherwise prejudices them in their profession; and

* Imputing that a person has engaged in adultery or fornication.

“Importantly, a statement can only be considered defamatory per se if the harmful effect is apparent on the face of the statement itself. If extrinsic facts or additional information about the person being defamed is required to understand the harmful effect of the statement, then it cannot be defamatory per se. That is not to say the statement is not defamatory if extrinsic facts are required; it just cannot be defamatory per se.

“If a defamatory statement does not fall into one of the defamatory per se categories or requires extrinsic facts, then it is considered defamatory per quod.

“Unlike in cases involving defamation per se, defamation per quod claims require the plaintiff to allege and prove special damages (also called ‘special harm’ by some courts). The term ‘special damages’ or ‘special harm’ is a legal term in defamation law that means the loss of something with actual economic or pecuniary value… such as the commission from a lost sale or the salary from a lost job.”

If you have any interest in knowing more than this about the legal ramifications of defamation (which I doubt), you can find it here.

What is satire?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines satire as “a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn.”

Satire can appear in every possible medium – in books, essays, newspapers, pamphlets, and in movies, TV, on the stage, and even in drawings. And it has many, many manifestations, including irony, parody, buffoonery, burlesque, caricature, lampoon, mockery, and ridicule.

Satire is the effort to expose serious flaws or peccadilloes of well-known or powerful people or institutions. Its range can be narrow or broad. And its treatment of its subject can be gentle or harsh.

This is important: Satire doesn’t have to be fair. It doesn’t have to be balanced. As Garry Trudeau said, speaking to the American Newspaper Publishers Association in 1988: “Satire is supposed to be unbalanced. It’s supposed to be unfair. Criticizing a political satirist for being unfair is like criticizing a nose guard for being physical.”

At a time when political and ideological ideas are so divided, humor – satire in particular – is not just a social balm. It’s an existential necessity.

The next time you hear someone tell you why some bit of satire is not funny – or worse, a microaggression – make use of one of these brilliant quips about satire (from Dr. Mardy’s website)…

* From G.K. Chesterton: “A man is angry at a libel because it is false, but at a satire because it is true.”

* From Peter De Vries: “The difference between satire and humor is that the satirist shoots to kill while the humorist brings his prey back alive, often to release him again for another chance.”

* From Barbara Tuchman: “Satire is a wrapping of exaggeration around a core of reality.”

*  From E.L. Doctorow: “Satire’s nature is to be one-sided, contemptuous of ambiguity, and so unfairly selective as to find in the purity of ridicule an inarguable moral truth.”

* From Jonathan Swift:  “Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own.”