Bro Comedies Making Fun of Gay Men
This article topic is always interesting, largely because it's in the eye of the beholder,
it's not easy to explain, often misunderstood and, as the title of a Steve Martin album
proclaims, "Comedy is Not Pretty."
A lot of comedy is based on stereotypes. It always has been. Someone once advised to
not take something personal, unless it is. Comedy is not offensive, in and of itself, it's what
someone brings to it.
Personally, I'd rather see people laughing at anything than not. Someone genuinely laughing is
not a threat.
The age old joke of someone slipping on a banana peel is actually based on someone else's pain
and misfortune or happenstance.
There are several comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock who have stopped doing their comedy
acts at colleges and universities because the internet/media generation has come to judge every little
thing as being appropriate or not. It's almost like they're afraid to laugh at anything without being called
out on it in some way, without being sure it's not going to offend anyone first. I'll give them a clue: there
is someone somewhere who will find something offensive. There are people out there willing to tell you
that almost everything you've ever laughed at is offensive in one way or another to someone.
I forget why this ever happened, but do you remember when President George H. W. Bush one time
came out and expounded on his hatred of broccoli, a vegetable he never liked, and he adamantly put
it into words? I thought that was quite amusing because we all have something like that we do not
like to eat. Then there were people criticizing him for doing that, saying the President shouldn't give
permission to children to hate all vegetables etc.
So, is the fact that the two straight CHiP's officers in this film being discussed are finding discomfort in things
gay men would not be, is that offensive or is it amusing to watch straight dudes in such a situation without judging
them for it? Is it making fun of Gay Men or of the Straight Men's discomfort? Is it the context of how that's presented
or inherently one way or the other?
There is a learning aspect not always apparent in humor. (The old adage: There is truth in humor.) So, we may
laugh at something one time and not another. There's a reason why "adolescent humor" is a phrase we've all
heard before. Humor is a learning tool. So I say, don't worry too much about what people are laughing about
(not to be confused with "making fun of") and just be happy when people are laughing.
It's always seemed to me that the most enlightened people have a good, if not great, sense of humor, and who
is one of the least enlightened people in the news now who exhibits none of that? Take a guess.