The Politics of Humor

photo taken from this site

I was out with a bunch of friends last night and we had a hearty laugh over this photo. In the middle of our laughing fit, one asked "guys, hahah, why are we laughing, hahaha" and we continued on until the laughter died on its own and we were left on a realization about our morbid sense of humor.

Of course, we are not laughing because the baby is being stomped to death. We are laughing because of the artist's funny (and twisted) way of interpreting the "new shoes binyagan tradition" applied to the actual "child baptismal". 

We were already in a contemplative mood when someone quipped, "Child abuse is not a joke! Murder is not a joke!" in allusion to the recent political hullabaloos happening and the laughter rose again.

Fast forward this morning, I saw a tweet from a respected gender activist inferring to necrophilia and rape. The tweet was a jab against a presidentiable who made a controversial remark insinuating sexual activity with a rape victim. Needless to say, the respected gender activist's satirical quip on joking about rapists was met with amusement from the intellectual crowd.

The tweet reminded me of the laugh my friends and I shared last night about this comic strip on infanticide. Among those bunch of friends, two genuinely likes kids, one is a staunch human rights believer, and the last two may have questionable sense of humor but are all for child protection. There was no need to call out who laughed the hardest because everyone knows that everyone is laughing at the absurdity of the joke and not because they are genuinely pleased to see a child being stomped to death. 

Which lead me into thinking, are my friends and I guilty of being an audience to an offensive "infanticide joke"? But then again, what really is an "infanticide joke"? Are all jokes about infanticide considered offensive? Or are they going to be offensive only when said at the expense of the victims? This goes to all other jokes too.

Point is, we can discuss all day about the nuances of messaging and volatility of concepts and meaning (à la Saussure) but it's interesting how there is always this social class-based bias when it comes to defining people based on their sense of humor: that if a sando-wearing, tambay-looking person made a joke on 'sensitive things', s/he is perverse and ignorant; but if it's an educated, intellectual person who does, s/he is just being witty.

In as much as said bias actually benefits me, it doesn't mean that I have to be blind about the fact that it exists.

PS. Now that I look at this again, I realize the comic strip isn't that funny at all.