Skip to main content

The Line

 ‘The Office’ has become one of those shows that everyone has seen or at least heard of, also known as one of those shows that people “can just not believe you haven’t watched the greatest TV show of all time!!!”. Steve Carell, whose character has a bit of a unique sense of humor, has claimed that should ‘The Office’ air in this age, it would most probably face multiple backlashes. So has our [audience’s] sense of humour changed? Has it become more sensitive? What has changed? When does humour stop being funny and just plain offensive?



By this point, it has become apparent that humour is subjective and depends from person to person. But if humour is subjective, how can we draw a line, or how can we say something is not a joke but just plain offensive? Where does the line come in? In the play ‘Waiting for Godot’, some people may find humour in Lucky’s situation or, on a smaller level, the speech he gave. However, some people may find it offensive and slightly insulting to people who have lived in abusive conditions or relationships. Both schools of thought are technically not wrong, because the absurdness and the suddenness of Lucky’s speech prompt that laugh of shock or absurdity where you’re just thinking ‘this can’t possibly be actually happening’ but at the same time you’re just wondering what the heckity heck Sam Beckett was thinking by de-humanizing and trapping a human being for the sake of laughs. So, to understand this whole thing, I did what any wise person would do, I held a family conference. I asked my mum, dad, and brother their opinion and got a general rule of thumb.

Humour is funny as long as there is a presence of empathy. What this means is, if you know you’re in a room where someone will get hurt, (and not in the superficial sense of getting mad just for the sake of getting mad), be careful and probably avoid that sort of comment. Something that I have personally noticed, is that when someone makes a joke that isn’t meant to offend, their body language sort of mirrors that sentiment, and I think that’s just the presence of empathy. You are aware that you are making a joke at the expense of a person, but you are reassuring them at the same time that it is a lighthearted thing. Of course, it’s a delicate balance, but that’s something that can be adjusted to match the environment.

This is where we kind of loopback: why would The Office face backlash if it was released today? Today a larger range of people would watch this show, so the probability of someone who was not in the original target audience watching this is higher. There may be jokes that offend them because them watching it wasn’t taken into consideration before. On top of that, through acting you can’t express your true feelings about that comment or joke, so you can’t let your posture and stuff do the ‘it’s a joke!’ thing for you, and your comment gets taken seriously, and then spread around like wildfire. 

Are Comedians Going Out Of Business?

At this point I think I answered what I set out to in this blog post, not really sure, but maybe. It’s fine. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry and why it's Relevant

Everyone I have spoken to (the five other people I talk to on a regular basis) about poetry and their thoughts about it, have in so many words expressed the same idea, poetry is overrated. This made me wonder how poetry is still relevant. From my (very biased, and skewed) sample it is obvious that people don’t really like poetry. Now from personal experience I can say that I thought of poetry as an unnecessary middle ground between stories and songs ( alliterations, they’re perfect). Cause like you get the whole narrative that you get in stories, but you have to add a rhyme scheme and rhythm to it, and then add hidden meanings. AND ALL THIS IS IN 5 STANZAS. Now I have changed a lot of my opinions this year, and poetry has been one of those. Poetry because of its position as a middle ground has the capability to express deep and complex meanings in a few words. It expresses emotions that a story might express in 1000 words, and with a smaller word range each word emphasizes the overall...
Post a Comment
Read more

I Put a Spell on You

Background Music  Magic tricks have always fascinated me. I know they are optical illusions, however, it’s always fun to enter a show and be prepared to figure out the magician’s secrets. Of course, I have always failed at that, and I’d have to be told (usually in a condescending tone) about the obvious trick. Despite my lack of comprehension with simple optical illusions, there is one illusion that I have figured out: freedom. Humans as a species love the idea of freedom, especially freedom in perceptions and ideologies. However, freedom like every magic trick is just an illusion; when looked at deep enough we come to the realization that outside factors are always influencing us. These factors do not just appear in our life, they are almost always sources of manipulation, set by people in authority. Most humans inherently look for someone to lead or guide them, the ones that don’t become the leaders and guiders. The leaders are charismatic beings who have an innate capability...
4 comments
Read more

Poetry 2

  So poetry right? It’s fun and interesting and everything until you have to sit down and analyze a poem about the Titanic which is apparently structured like the Titanic. Cheers to all the poets out there, cause that’s exactly what I needed in my life, more things to analyze.  (‘Life’ ‘analyze’ do those two rhyme? Sounds like it. Eh I digress) In my last post I tried to be all intellectual and find out why poetry is still so relevant in our society, and I came up with this theory that poetry works well because it’s the grey area between novels and songs, and so you get the best of both worlds. But still I mean it’s not necessary for a poet to ensnare and confuse me with twisted riddles when all they want to say is ‘pay attention to what you’re doing, people can trick you’. Like yeah Mr. Olive Senior I know that, but because of you I now have to write an essay on that. Like proper using words and coherent sentences.  (I wonder though, what would happen if I answered a poe...
Post a Comment
Read more