Page 38 - Issue 26

ELITE
Vol.1 Issue 26, December 2020
Vol.1 Issue 26, December 2020 ELITE

bgbgb

TOXIC WORDS
hghgh

habiba tarek , tHIRD LEVEL, POLITICAL SCIENCE

Life is hard, and joking about hardships seems to and belittles the struggles they face. When you turn
one ’s trauma into a joke, you dehumanize the person
make them easier. Granted, it does not resolve them;
in front of you, and reduce them into nothing but a
but it does allow you to take a step back and make
punchline.
light of what is usually a dark situation. Dark times
call for dark humor, right? Wrong. Could it be that
In which case, you need to take a step back, and ask
there is a code of humor, just like there is a code of
yourself why you find this type of humor funny.
ethics? Which boundaries can – or can you not –
What drives you to laugh about genocides, for
cross, and when does your “ dark ” humor cease to be
example? What are your priorities: to get a temporary
funny; and become, by default, offensive?
laugh out of someone, or to avoid hurting and
shaming them? And if you ’re being honest, which I
While it is not uncommon for people use humor as a
hope you are, you will come to realize that you have a
coping mechanism, and while it is understandable that
tendency to laugh at the wrong things because you ’ve
it is oftentimes compelling to approach things
been told it ’s okay. This culture of exploiting others
lightheartedly, not everything is fit for a punchline. It
for our entertainment has been present for years and
is perfectly okay for you to make light of your own
has been reinforced and normalized to the point
struggle, and of your own life, if that helps you better
where going against it seems almost unreasonable.
deal with it. What isn ’ t okay, however, is to joke
Why would anyone want to police the way you joke?
about someone else ’s experience for your own
What about your freedom of speech? However, that ’s
enjoyment. Some jokes are, simply put, tasteless.
the thing: you are not free to drag others down and
They are offensive and they are morally wrong due to
hurt them in order to make yourself and others laugh.
the negative connotations they hold. People ’ s lives are It is not funny and it is not right.
not a skit, and people do not exist to entertain others,
Does this make you an inherently bad person?
either.
Chances are, no. You most likely didn ’t know any
better, and I don't blame you for it. But now that
So long as humor is rooted in the oppression of
you ’ve been made aware, what are you going to do
others, it is no longer classified as humor – it is,
with that information? I believe it is your (and my)
rather, a micro-aggression. For example, using
personal responsibility to become more ethical than
racial/sexist/ableist slurs is not, by any means,
the circle we grew up in. It is our responsibility to
funny. It further stigmatizes vulnerable categories
break this generational chain. Two wrongs don ’t
37
make a right.