"Humor is also a way of saying something serious." - TS Eliot
I personally believe that the best way of fighting against bigotry is to deny them the stage. This can be done by ignoring them or exposing their bigotry. Of course, one of the easiest (and less confrontational) ways to expose their bigotry is to use honest humor (as opposed to bigoted humor).
2 comments:
I'm not sure if George Carlin would fit your "honest humor" category but I've always thought he was such a brilliant comedian who challenged some very serious issues with humor. I know he helped me sort out some of my long-held beliefs.
I don't know... a lot of Carlin's work was against censorship and social construct by poking fun at them. I haven't watched more than clips of his shows, but from what I recall, they were mostly of the let's-make-fun-of-authority-figures type of humor.
Snide and sarcastic? Sure.
Cutting and bombastic? Yup.
Ad hominem and ad populum? Not that I've seen.
I have to admit that I came across Carlin's work near the end of his life. As such, he was always the old guy in the various Jay and Silent Bob films (and -- of course -- Rufus from the Bill and Ted series), and I couldn't understand why so many people felt that his inclusion was such a good touch. (After all, I hadn't seen him in any other films.)
Around 2002, I finally figured out who he was (thanks to cable TV). If I had only learned of him earlier...
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