The Use of Humor in Our Society to Promote Ideas

716 Words2 Pages

Humor is something that is highly valued in today’s contemporary

world. It is something that we are constantly surrounded by, something

that people use to fall back on when life gets too serious, something

that unites people together if they can laugh at the same joke.

However, humor can also cause offense and division if people oppose

the particular ways of thinking being promoted in the text. Humor is

probably the most powerful tool used by authors today to criticize,

challenge or emphasize particular ideas or issues that are dominant in

society. All humorous texts invite a certain response from its

audience; however people can choose to read with the text and laugh at

what is being ridiculed, or read against the text and condemn its

ideas. Therefore, different people will respond differently to certain

humorous texts, depending on their cultural knowledge and their

values, attitudes and beliefs towards the subject being mocked.

From the first stimulus drawn by Mark Parisi of an elderly man

misplacing his dentures when they were attached to his behind, it is

obvious that the folly being mocked is that of the elderly. The

cartoon draws attention and exaggerates the forgetful nature one

acquires when one is of old age and uses this as the ‘butt’ of the

joke to evoke laughter from the audience. Although some people might

find the cartoon amusing, the cartoon might also be taken as

offensive, depending on the values of the viewer. For example, someone

who is elderly themselves might see the cartoon as an insult as it

stereotypes all elderly as incompetent and forgetful. Whereas someone

who is does not regard elderly very highly, say som...

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... might find this picture

funny as they agree with the values being endorsed in the text – Steve

Irwin is an idiot.

We are positioned to laugh at something that is inevitable to everyone

– getting old. We as Australians are positioned to laugh at Australian

icons ‘feeding’ their children to vicious animals. Could it be that

because we feel inclined to laugh at something ‘humorous’ without

thinking about the more complex ideas and critique underpinned, we

fail to see an issue for what it really is? Could it be that because

we do not take anything seriously anymore, humour has turned us

callous and ignorant, finding even the most morbid of situations

humorous rather than see them for what they are - morbid? When you

really think about it, does this deserve a laugh? Is humour really

funny? I certainly don’t think so.

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