In Which I Call Myself a Horrible Person

Generally, only good things come from David Letterman entering the political fray. See, eg., his takedown of Bill O’Reilly on Iraq, his skewering of John McCain, and his ongoing humiliation of George Bush and Dick Cheney.

So I really wish I could be fully on Letterman’s side in his feud with Sarah Palin. Letterman is right to be angry that the Palins are saying he told jokes about their 14 year old, when it’s pretty obvious that the target was 18 year old Bristol. But I’m not sure he provides an adequate defense of joking on national TV about the sex life of an 18 year old, or that such a defense exists. Letterman himself seems conflicted: he certainly isn’t entirely serious when he says “this is nasty stuff,” but I don’t think he’s being entirely sarcastic either.

Offensive humor is a subject I’ve struggled with for a while. I tell, and laugh at, more than my share of offensive jokes. It’s not something I’d necessarily say I’m ashamed of, but as the Letterman clip demonstrates, it is hard to justify when put to the task. Not that I’m fan of utilitarianism, but the pleasure derived from those who enjoy an offensive joke is almost never going to justify the harm to the person offended.

I try to rationalize my sense of humor by being sensitive to my audience and trying not to offend whoever I’m with at any given moment. But I know this doesn’t get me off the hook. I also know that I need to be more aware of how easy it is for me as a straight white dude to laugh at things that really aren’t funny.

I know some will respond to such bleeding heartery by saying that people should just lighten up and what is society coming to and here come the thought police and so on. I’ve always thought that critics of “political correctness” (which has taken on a negative connotation, even though it’s basically a synonym of “being considerate to others”) dramatically overstate the value to society of being able to mock other people or groups. Even if you feel a person or group is being overly sensitive, I don’t see the harm in being accommodating rather than being antagonistic (or masking your desire to be able to laugh at a joke in good conscience as a crusade for free speech). And, any way, if we can’t make each other laugh without going for shock value and tearing others done, we might as well just pack it in on this whole civilization thing.

There’s another issue here, which might be worth getting more into at another time, which is the degree to which people open themselves up to scrutiny and mockery through their political stances. It’s tempting to rationalize joking about Bristol Palin because her mother comes from the family values wing of the Republican Party and she herself has begun speaking out for the abstinence only movement. But while I’m all for calling out hypocrisy (and, as evidenced by the fact that I’m writing a blog post about the harm of offensive, engaging in hypocrisy), I don’t think it justifies the crasser jokes leveled at the Palin family. See also.

-AR