Bonus #11 What makes it funny? Kathleen Paxtor

Humor is one of those things that can be taken into multiple perspectives. I think that there is a fine line between something being funny and something being disturbing. For example, the Racist Gift Basket video was funny but then I got into thinking about how wrong it really was. I noticed that when Gabriel Iglesias was talking about different races his behavior and voice immediately went into a more stereotypical voice/gestures (receptionist and maid). If this was anyone else doing it in any other context I probably would not be laughing, on the contrary, I would probably be a little irritated. But because I knew Gabriel Iglesias was doing it for laughs through a comedic perspective it did not really bother me much (I thought it maybe wasn’t necessary but I guess it added to his story). I showed this video to someone a lot older than me and they didn’t find it funny at all. There response was literally “this is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of”. In my Rhetorics of New Media class we have talked about media and the creators intent versus the audience’s perspective. I thought this was really relatable to this because not everyone will understand a joke. Every generation will understand it differently, for example the 55-year-old lady thought it was vulgar and not funny whereas I found it to be a lighthearted joke between old friends. In a book written by Jenkins et. al. called Spreadable Media the idea of a joke and humor goes beyond it being ‘just funny’. Jenkins argues that “recognizing a joke involves exchanging judgments about the world and defining oneself either with or against others”. This can be seen in jokes that have to do with suicide, racism, Hitler, sex, etc, not everyone will agree with what is being said. Some people will choose one side and others the other side. Jenkins also says that “humor is not simply a matter of taste: it is a vehicle by which people articulate and validate their relationships with those whom they share the joke”. Today in class we were actually arguing on different commercials that were deemed as “funny” and yet crossed the line of being offensive. For example, there is an Asian laundry detergent commercial of this African American man going into a washer and after using the laundry detergent comes out to be a lighter Asian man. To the content creators and market strategists they thought that this was funny and an easy way to sell their product. On the contrary, there was so much backlash because it was so controversial that they had to ban it from ever being used. The backlash went viral, not only did it reach the US but other countries as well. Basically what I am trying to get across is that I think that regardless of the content creator thinks that something is funny it can come across as derogatory. We as the audience are the ones that deem a joke to be funny or unpleasant.