My favorite joke was created by Milton Jones in the mid-90s. I can’t remember whether I saw him perform it live or caught it on the telly. But it goes like this:
“When the kids at school found out about my potentially fatal peanut allergy, they made me play Russian roulette with a packet of Revels.”
It’s one sentence. There is is no elaborate set up. If a loved one has died of anaphylactic shock from a nut allergy then you may not find it funny. But it is my favorite joke.
Why?
It links 2 things - “Russian roulette” and “peanut allergies” - that have no business being together by means of a third - “a packet of Revels”.
It taps into the deep truth that kids can be vicious s**ts to each other.
It has a dark edge but it isn’t trying to ridicule any specific group (deserving or undeserving).
It is deeply absurd in all the meanings of that word.
But is it funny?
Well, that’s a meaningless question. It implies that there is Universal Law of Funny – perhaps mediated by a fundamental particle – the funion? The hahatron? Laughter is sometimes called a “universal language” (if only Zamenhof had put more fart noises in Esperanto) but anyone who has ever tried to tell a joke to a stranger knows that what one person finds funny may not match with the tastes of others. Our senses of humour are products of our individual psychologies and our collective cultural values – not some innate human biology. Our genes do not contain punchlines. When people write “must have GSOH” in dating profiles, what they really mean is “must have a similar SOH to me” – not “must be able to perform a tight ten down the local comedy club”.
The question is not: Is it funny? But who is it funny to? And why?
It’s just a joke.
It’s never just a joke. Anyone whose been embarrassed by a quip or anyone who has used a quip to embarrass someone else knows that a joke is not just a joke. And certainly professional comedians know that jokes are not just jokes. They are valuable assets that generate income. If jokes were unimportant then people would not pay millions to those who tell them. You cannot have your cake and say that your cake does not exist as a kind of Schroedinger’s Custard Pie.
Finally, is the modern comedian an entertainer or an artist? What’s the difference? An entertainer makes you feel good. An artist makes you feel something new. The entertainer’s role is to provide comfort in a harsh world. An artist’s role is to make you wonder how the world might be different. Neither is better than the other. Both are vocations. Both require craft and skill. And it is possible to be both at once – or at least in the same act. Traditionally comedians have been entertainers. And some of them have aspired to be artists. But only artists get to claim a higher moral purpose for what they do.
All of this brings us to the latest example of people being offended by a comedian.
Jimmy Carr told the following joke in his Netflix special.
"When people talk about the Holocaust, they talk about the tragedy and horror of six million Jewish lives being lost to the Nazi war machine. But they never mention the thousands of gypsies that were killed by the Nazis. No one ever wants to talk about that, because no one ever wants to talk about the positives.”
There was, predictably, an outcry. But lets stop for a moment and examine this joke. What does it do? Who is it for?
First of all, lots of people have said that they don’t think Jimmy Carr is a Nazi as though that needed saying. This is superfluous. For the joke to work, Jimmy Carr has to not be a Nazi. If the first 2 sentences were said by someone covered in swastika tattoos, there would be no punchline. Of course, such a person would think the mass murder of gypsies was good. Carr’s entire career has been predicated on three things:
1. Having the clothes, look and mannerisms of standard issue light entertainer.
2. Saying things that many people find terrible.
3. Doing so in elaborately constructed jokes.
The only way that he can get away with 2 is by being really good at 1 and 3. And doing 2 differentiates him from other people who do 1 and 3. He has to look like the kind of person who would not say the things that he says. Otherwise all you are left with is some bigot drivelling hate speech into a microphone.
This is the kind of joke that Carr has been telling for 15 years. There’s nothing new or original. He’s been insulting Roma for years as well. If you going to call it evil then it is the Evil of Banality. It’s Ted Rogers doing an evening set in a Auschwitz-themed BBQ joint.
So who are Carr’s jokes for? Well, there’s no mystery here: lads. Blokes who want to see someone on stage telling the jokes that they tell each other in private. The jokes he tells are the reassurance for them that their world is OK. His Material isn’t Dark (no matter the title of the show), it’s a comfort food kebab for Audi 1.8 Turbo drivers.
There are two comparison points here. The first is Daniel Sloss. A younger comedian who uses his good looks and charm to talk about edgy topics. But he’s someone who actively wants to take apart the lad worldview and talk about topics like sexual assault in a not “it’s just a joke” way. The second is Richard Spencer. A well-dressed, well-mannered man who *is* a Nazi and will often claim that the more outrageous things he says are just jokes. There are now lots of people who look like Jimmy Carr and say the things he says - and mean it.
Fun muse, Matt. Speaking of jokes not always translating, I was so looking forward to what you thought the funniest joke was you've ever heard - only to have to pause for a moment and try to imagine what sort of thing Revels are. While they are unknown here in the US, we do have Goobers and M&M Peanuts. I think Goobers would work in your joke - although the word packet is problmatic here, too. We tend not to think in terms of candies like this coming in packets. Most of us are familiar with Goobers in boxes at movie theatres. And this post is a starting become a bit of a worm dissection. :-)