Saturday, February 17, 2018

Comedy

Mark Ramsey and many others assert, "Comedy tells the truth." But that is often wrong. Comedy thrives on the fallacious (and unexpected)--puns, exaggerations, small samples, bad definitions, false analogies, straw person attacks, false cause claims, and irrelevant ad hominem points, not to mention various other false or irrelevant or otherwise worthless claims.

Jaded by hedonism, some audiences demand ever more shock value.

A good sign of ethical growth is an ability to see most political comedy as banal or destructive, consisting of glorified talking points. In strident believers, the banal becomes humorous. Cliches become group identification symbols. In previous decades, saying "thanks Obama" hundreds of times would be considered a sign of a hackneyed, tiresome sense of humor.

The problem is not limited to multiculturalists. Many memes on Voat and other sites are terrible.

The talking point hammers increase while clever, subtle, and sophisticated humor declines.

Not laughing at political humor is seldom a sign of lacking a sense of humor, but a sign of seeing through the BS. Especially irksome is when comics pretend their pathetic attempts at humor are over your head.

Emo Phillips once had a damn poignant joke:
Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"
He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"
He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region." I said, "Me, too!"
Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.
(Monty Python had a similar joke. I don't know which came first.)

Now we're stuck in a country where Republican Neoconservatives for John Kasich and Jeb Bush act as if Republican Neoconservatives for Donald Trump are heretics, deserving of death via multiculturalism or World War III, along with most of us, despite the fact that Trump keeps kowtowing to their policy demands.

Truthful dissent from multiculturalism results in expulsion or other punishments.

It's hardly a laughing matter.

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