Everyone has heard a bad joke. Whether it’s your dad pulling out a pun from Facebook at family dinner or a kid regurgitating a “your mom” joke, some jokes are terrible inasmuch as they are dull and uninteresting. Other jokes are said to be terrible because they offend. But can dark, even offensive humor have moral value?
Hosted by the Notre Dame philosophy department on February 9, Cornell University Professor David Shoemaker dove right into these controversial questions in a talk titled, “Finding More Funny.”
In a comment to the Rover, Shoemaker explained that he first started to philosophize about humor “during the most hilarious of times, the pandemic. I started thinking more about what [humor] is and what is it that makes me laugh?”
To frame his argument, Shoemaker told a joke from the perspective of a first responder: “The team was called to do a resuscitation in an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant. The gentleman didn’t make it. On our way back, one of our colleagues said, ‘Well, that was all he could eat.’”
Shoemaker went on to argue that, while dark, such humor has moral value. “Humor has a powerful distracting effect, and it enables what psychologists call emotional regulation. So what happens is the amusement … swamps or eliminates emotional distress that you would otherwise have. I don’t know if any of us in here are first responders, but you can imagine being presented with a scene of blood and guts and the kind of emotional distress you would very likely have,” he continued.
At times, Shoemaker said, dark humor reframes difficulty and invites empathy. For example, people tell stories to make light of injuries: “What I’m doing is finding the funny in this situation and telling that story to you. I’m inviting you to see it through my eyes and to see it as funny in the same sort of way that I am. And if you resist, and if you say, ‘Oh, you poor dude, how could you be amused by that? That was terrible. I’m so sorry that happened to you.’ … You think you’re being kind, but you’re not. You think you’re being empathic, and you’re not.”
A joke’s funniness is separate from its moral value. To this point, Shoemaker gave a somewhat heinous example, quoting Nikki Glaser’s famous roast of Tom Brady: “But seriously, Tom, you’re the best to ever play for too long. You retired, then you came back and then you retired again. I get it, it’s hard to walk away from something that’s not your pregnant girlfriend.”
Shoemaker said that this joke is funny precisely because it is mean, arguing that immoral content and humor are not mutually exclusive. That said, immoral content can render a funny joke inappropriate or harmful. Moral and comedic considerations must be weighed against each other. One may also consider a joke funny while maintaining that it was too offensive.
To Shoemaker, humor also forces a broadening of perspective. This counteracts the barrier of “ideology” that blocks humor, in which “wisecracks are made about the other team, [to be] funny, but the exact same structure of a joke, when it comes to your team, is not funny at all.”
Abe Matthew, a postdoctoral fellow in philosophy researching normative ethics, commented on the connection Shoemaker made between “jokes and values.” There can be “moral utility” in “‘embracing the absurd’ and taking the perspective of someone who disagrees with [you or makes] a joke at the expense of your values,” Matthew said. “By finding the funny in things that you don’t usually find funny, you engage a sort of empathetic perspective,” he told the Rover.
Professor David Shoemaker’s book, Wisecracks: Humor and Morality in Everyday Life, is available for purchase from the University of Chicago Press.
Artur–“this hunk of a computer needs more calories than your mom”–Krutul is a sophomore majoring in neuroscience and behavior. When he’s not slandering Darius’ mother, Stanford’s Hall’s “Socrates on a Scooter” can be found dispensing obscure wisdom to his fellow students. For example:
“Women aren’t funny.” – Abby Strelow
“What do you mean? I’ve met funny looking women.” – Artur Krutul
He can be reached at akrutul@nd.edu.
Darius Colangelo is a junior majoring in mathematics and the Program of Liberal Studies. He hates jokes. Don’t bother him at dcolange@nd.edu.