Is Offensive Comedy Hurting Us?

By: Philip Hinson

omedy has always been about

pushing boundaries and riding the

line between what people find
acceptable and unacceptable. Some
have been more willing to cross that
line than others and they have often
been met with criticism. Is it harmful
when a comedian tells a joke that
some people find offensive? Can our
culture be negatively impacted by
jokes about stereotypes or rape?
Racist and homophobic
jokes are in many comedians sets.
Do these jokes perpetuate or
justify an intolerant mindset?
Many consider the possibility
of these jokes perpetuating or
justifying and intolerant
mindset. The Normative
Window Theory of Prejudice
says that we all put people or
groups onto a scale of how
justified we are in being
prejudiced or discriminatory
toward them. A study by Dr.
Thomas Ford and his students
was done conducted to
determine the effect of hearing
derogatory jokes towards a group.
Subjects were tested on their preexisting levels of prejudice and then
some were told jokes about groups
such as racists and homosexuals.
After this, the subjects were asked to
allocate a schools budget for
organizations that were related to the
groups the jokes were told about. It
was found that hearing jokes about a
group that most people already
justifiably discriminate against (such
as racists) didnt cause more
discrimination. However, jokes about
a group for which public opinion is in
the process of shifting (such as
homosexuals) did causecaused the
subjects to feel more justified in their

discrimination.1 For comedy, this

means that jokes targeting minority
groups that are still discriminated
against can actually strengthen those
beliefs.
The reasons for the creation of
stereotypes and their effects are not
always clear to understand. In the
book Stereotypes and Stereotyping, it
is explained that stereotypes are
essentially schemas, a way for us to
organize information, in this case
about groups of people. Whether they
are accurate or not, stereotypes
require a group to have certain
unchanging characteristics.2 This

creates a dangerous opportunity for

us to act based on these predisposed
ideas about individuals that belong to
certain groups. However, it is
important to remember that
stereotypes are not the only influence
on human action.
I think we can agree that stereotypes
are not good, but is it true that
comedy supports them? Roger Cohen
and Ryan Richards, both writers for
Humanity In Action, say no. Comedy
is a platform that forces people to
confront realities in society that they

Greengross, Gil. "Does Racist Humor Promote Racism?"

Psychology Today. July 18, 2011.

Macrae, C. Neil, and Charles Stangor. "Stereotyping, Prejudice,

and Discrimination: Another Look." In Stereotypes and Stereotyping,

276-322. New York: Guilford Press, 1996.

want to ignore. They also claim that

it can actually help eliminate a
stereotypes power over a minority
group. Stephen Rosenfield, a comedy
writer, describes a reoccurring pattern
in comedy. It begins with a groups
being subject to stereotype jokes.
People within the group will begin to
doperform jokes about the stereotype
ironically, breaking down the
stereotype in the process. Others
have said that this process pattern is
not entirely accurate. They point to
examples such as members of white
supremacist groups using jokes about
black people in Chris Rocks
act to justify their racism. This
is obviously misconstruing the
point of Rocks comedy, but it
shows that jokes can have
unintended consequences.
Greg Giraldo, another
comedian, says that jokes
should teach to not bash
minority groups, by making
fun of things the audience
knows not to be true.3
There is however a different
view on comedys effect on
stereotypes. In a study, people of
different races were asked how they
felt after viewing racial jokes in the
movie Rush Hour 2. The results
showed that almost nobody was
offended, but this does not
necessarily mean they were not
harmful. These jokes can provide
validity to the supposed racial
differences of Black and Asian
Americans by presenting them in a
light-hearted way that most people
would not resist indulging in. In the
end, the effect that a joke has
depends on the viewers
interpretation. Minorities in the study

Cohen, Roger, and Ryan Richards. "When the Truth Hurts, Tell a

Joke: Why America Needs Its Comedians." Humanity In Action.

seemed to enjoy the comedy within

the racial ideology4, instead of rising
above it as Rosenfield would suggest.
This type of racial stereotype
reinforcement could be dangerous
because of how little resistance it
faces.
Perhaps one of the most controversial
areas of comedy is jokes about rape
or sexual assault. Is it true that these
jokes normalize rape in our culture or
actually influence peoples behavior?
This normalization is one part of
what many people call rape
culture. Some examples of how this
manifests itself this are victim
blaming, denying the existence of
widespread sexual harassment and its
effects, and sexual objectification.
Many people, such as
journalist, Brendan ONeil, justify
comedians jokes about sexual
harassment by pointing to media
theories in the 70s and 80s that were
used to ban brash magazines and
horror movies. They draw a line
connecting the overreaction to these
things and the current reaction to
comedians like Dapper Laughs
(Daniel OReilly) in the UK, who has
been accused of contributing to rape
culture. In response to this, OReilly
said this at a show: If [my ITV
show] was a f****** guide to rape, I
would have done one five-minute
episode, come on and go 'Oi oi, I'm
Dapper Laughs, go down the shops,
get some rope, bit of duct tape, rape
the b****, well done, see you later.
ONeil even goes on to say that this
movement against Dapper translates
to discrimination against working
class white males as a whole.5
This is obviously an
extreme point of view against the
idea of rape culture. On the other
side, we have people like Kelsey

Park, Ji Hoon, Nadine G. Gabbadon, and Ariel R. Chernin.

"Naturalizing Racial Differences Through Comedy: Asian, Black, And

White Views On Racial Stereotypes In Rush Hour 2." Journal of
Communication, 2006, 157-77.

O'Neill, Brendan. "Death to Dapper: Behold the New

Intolerance." Death to Dapper: Behold the New Intolerance.

November 10, 2014.

Wallace, a contributor to bitchmedia.

She strongly believes that rape can
never be funny and that it is not a
good subject for a comedian. In an
edition of the Douchebag Decree,
Wallace talks about Daniel Toshs
standup incident where he was joking
about rape. A woman in the audience
stoop up and said, actually, rape
jokes are never funny. Tosh
responded by saying, Wouldnt it be
funny if that girl got raped by like, 5
guys right now? The woman left
because she felt threatened. Tosh
later apologized on twitter, but also
stated that there are awful things in
the world but you can still make
jokes about them. Others, such as
Jessica Valenti, a feminist blogger,
say that making light of rape is part
of what maintains the status quo of
violence against women.6
Now is there any evidence
that rape jokes do contribute to rape
culture? Studies have shown that
hearing sexist jokes does lead to an
increase in the acceptance of peoples
desire to rape and in victim blaming
and a decrease in the view that rape
is a serious problem and in the desire
to punish rapists.7 While this is
evidence for an effect on attitude, it is
not indicative of an effect on
actionbehavior. There are other
studies however, such as one
involving the Buss aggression
machine, a machine that tests a
subjects level of aggression by how
much they are willing to electrically
shock another person, that show that
action is affected by whether or not a
subject had heard disparaging humor.
Another study showed that hearing
offensive humor caused women to
more aggressively reject female
applicants than when they heard
inoffensive humor.8
Lets return to the incident
during Daniel Toshs show. It was

Wallace, Kelsey. "Douchebag Decree: Daniel Tosh and the

calculated by Kelsey Wallace that out

of the 280 person audience at Toshs
show, around 39 of them had been
raped, and many others had lived in
fear of it.9 Hearing someone mention
rape could be a traumatic trigger for
some people. This brings the question
of if comedians should be responsible
for recognizing this possible effect of
their comedy or if they should even
have to provide some sort of trigger
warning like other forms of
entertainment do. Molliey
Hemingway, a senior editor at the
Federalist, argues that trigger
warnings are bad and soften us. She
also asks, Shouldnt all art provoke
in some way?10 This is a little
questionable because I doubt the
provocation that Hemingway had in
mind was a panic attack and
flashbacks from a traumatic event.
On the other hand, in a post on
reddit, jnethery defended the use of a
trigger warning by a group that
makes gaming videos. He said that
comedians do not need to feel
obligated to avoid off-color humor,
but the fact that the group made an
attempt to prevent a traumatic
flashback for someone was
honorable.11
I think it is difficult to say how much
of an effect offensive comedy has on
our culture and peoples thoughts and
actions. There is scientific evidence
that there can be negative effects,
such as perpetuating stereotypes.
However, something also tells me
that if one goes in to a comedy show
knowing that nothing is serious, then

Sivaraman, Raj. "A Scientific Case Against Rape Jokes." Raj

Sivaraman. June 5, 2013.

Wallace, Kelsey. "Douchebag Decree: Daniel Tosh and the

"Comedy" of Rape Culture." Bitchmedia. July 12, 2012.

10

Hemingay, Mollie. "Tom And Jerry Now Has A Trigger

"Comedy" of Rape Culture." Bitchmedia. July 12, 2012.

Warning. Must Comedy Have Disclaimers?" The Federalist. October 6,

2014.

11

Sivaraman, Raj. "A Scientific Case Against Rape Jokes." Raj

Sivaraman. June 5, 2013.

"The "Trigger Warning" Was Justified, and Here's Why.

/r/gamegrumps." Reddit.

why should anything the comedian

says have an effect on what people
actually think. In the end, I think it is
important to find a happy medium.
We should recognize the
consequences that jokes can have,
while also making sure that the
freedom to express ourselves is not
stifled. We should continue to
ridicule those who make a fool of
themselves by making a backward
comment about a minority group, but
also not be completely dominated by
the ideals of political correctness. At
its core, comedy is simply about
being funny. As Louis C.K. said, To
me the goal of comedy is to just
laugh, which is a really high hearted
thing, visceral connection and
reaction.12

12

"Louis C. K. Quotes." BrainyQuote.