Punching Down

There’s been a lot of moralizing about the purpose of comedy, and whether it should attain purposes other than making people laugh.

Some say it’s important to be able to change the world around you as a result of comedy and look down upon the ‘trite garbage’ that entrenches conventional hierarchies. After all, why is it that many of the great comedians satirize that which is unjust? Why are the powerful often butts of the jokes? This is no coincidence they say, the divine purpose of comedy is to muzzle the powerful, to give voice to the voiceless.

In some ways, this is an appealing idea, to level the cosmic scales, to teach virtue and righteousness. However, it’s completely incorrect, and impoverishes the art form when scolds see that comedy as an art form doesn’t match their dreams.

This is most evident in two groups that have a bone to pick. Woke college students and evangelicals. Both of them heap scorn upon comedians, or subscribe to banalities when they approach the world around them. They’re fundamentally not curious and uninterested by parsing the various idiosyncrasies of the world around them.

Does that mean comedy is a race to the bottom, something for the blue collar Everyman to distract himself by? Is it all cake and circuses?

At the risk of sounding dull, yes. Art forms aren’t meant to create a specific change, they’re meant to express the attitudes and ideas of those performing. It’s self-expression all the way down. Just because some people are more observant, more charismatic, more funny doesn’t mean that there needs to be one unified view.

Imagine how dreary writing and reading would be if its sole goal was to create change in the world. It would be horrible if every down-on-their-luck character was a Pollyanna, and every rich character a Scrooge. We’d get sick of it. It would drain the novelty from it. We’d never be able to drown in anything deep or interesting. We’d never submerge and come out more grateful for life.

Some people think it’s perfectly acceptable to punch down. I am one of those people. It’s not like poverty is a virtue and success is a vice.

This style doesn’t play in every crowd, and it’s ok. Comedy gives comedians the space to be weird. Every topic can be funny for those enterprising enough to try.