The question posed was how long it takes for something tragic to become funny. The answer, 22.3 years. At least that’s what they say on the show South Park. The episode “Jared has Aides” focuses on this quandary as the people of South Park are finally able to laugh at AIDs. At least they laughed at the miscommunication in which everyone thought Jared Fogle wanted to give children AIDs, which is made so much worse with the more recent allegations, while only wanting to pay for them to have aides. The show is focusing on the way that people, including the writers of the show, will eventually encroach on sensitive territory as people as a whole care less or have less emotion tied to these events.
In honesty, I think it has to do with the distance someone has from an event and their ability to dehumanize the subject. JFK and Lincoln assassination jokes are able to be funny because we don’t have much of a tie to these people or their families. They are these figures well into the past we don’t really think of their personal lives or families. In the same vein, it takes some very dark people to make jokes about the murder of someone on the news. This is a very person and people sympathize with them or their family. Celebrities are different because they have become these icons. With the 9/11 jokes, we are separated by minimal time, but for many people it is again this separate thing from their lives. It is a historical event. There isn’t this clear face that people are sympathizing with. To extend this, I doubt someone who’s father died in 9/11 is going to find such humor very humorous. To them, it is a very real thing wrapped up in some real emotions. On the flip side, when something is small, it's often funnier when it is someone close to you. When you find security footage of a friend walking into and shattering a glass door it is much funnier than seeing that same video of a stranger. Its related to the Benign Violation Theory. When the situation is mroe removed from you, to you it seems more Benign. However, when it isn't to extreme of a violation its more rewarding to be able to put a person with the dumb mistake or small misfortune.
I too thought of the irony of the Jared/Aids episode--in a way, that episode is now much much more dangerous than it was before. But of course, the whole point is that South Park is always making things funny before their time.
ReplyDelete