The Orphaning of Humor

The death knell of humor is nigh and the dragon slayer is political correctness.  If it continues on its humorless track in our society, laughter - this once instinctive reaction to have fun with what we hear or see, or say - will be looked down upon as a rude expression of emotion.  Ironically, once where humor used to hold court – the entertainment industry – is both purveyor and slayer of humor.  The “politically correct” sector of entertainment is an endorser but avid police/critic of their fellow entertainers who commit humor that are directed at people, if in an oblique way.  If we cannot laugh at ourselves, or about ourselves then what are we going to laugh about.  Even Larson who projected his humor at animals, the background theme is still about humans. There is only one reason for that. Animals can’t read or laugh at themselves, let alone understand what’s funny.

Granted humor in some instances had become downright crude, sometimes obscene and in some cases prejudicial or racist, society had a way to deal with it.  Those who committed it get headline lashing and ratings-killing castigation that proved fatal to their careers.  Andrew Dice Clay may have been one.

Today, even Seinfeld is handcuffed from college gigs because universities today operate in the ether of political correctness.  Clint Eastwood gets public censure from the media for saying “that Caitlyn somebody”, a somewhat dismissive reference to the former Bruce Jenner.  Will we see the day when Monty Python, “Faulty Towers” and “Cheers” DVDs will be banned from the school library?  If one were to see the once popularly favored sitcoms of the older generation, “The Golden Girls” and “All in the Family”, not excluding “Married with Children”, with P. C. colored, rosy tinted glasses, one will be made to squirm and fidget over the humor that were disbursed then.  We might even venture that the portrayal of Ricky Ricardo in “I Love Lucy” will today be considered racist.  Someday we may lament for, “where have all the laughter gone?”

It will be a sad day when we can no longer laugh or elicit laughter in the office without being dragged to Human Resources, or be forced to take sensitivity training.  This is not to say that humor should be used with abandon at the office or any other social setting.  But, as usually the case in instances of so called social upheavals, we go overboard and react hard the other and opposite way that makes hysterical sound like a calming adjective. We always tend to overdo it when confronted by even a tingling of conscience for fear of a backlash.  I recall one Seinfeld episode where at one time each sentence in one scene had to have an inoculative phrase, “Not that there’s anything wrong with it”.  And blond jokes can only be told by real blonds.

Humor will be orphaned because no longer will there be anyone willing to parent a sense of humor.  HR and the liberal elite shall become the dust bins of humor; an orphanage of laughter-less social setting will become of our universities and offices.  Sensitivities towards offending someone or something are going to be so thinly tender that language will have evolved into a bland mix of humorless, unimaginative dribble of grammar, but politically correct language, so neutral it will lack any color because redskin, black, yellow and brown, among many descriptive words in the dictionary, or for that matter, tomahawks, gunnery, rifled through, even Gypsy Rose Lee, short, fat, limp, etc. have to be vetted for their context when used in talking or writing.

Did you know that expressions we commonly use that were actually quotes from Shakespeare are words like, “it’s Greek to me”, “kill with kindness”, that may someday be expunged?

Let me then connect other Shakespearean phrases that will make it right for political correctness sake, that all will be “pure as the driven snow” because, “as good luck would have it”, it is “good riddance” that we do away for “forever and a day”, all politically incorrect statements, hence, be prepared to, “lie low”, because “fair play” may have “seen better days”.  “Be all, end all” or “off with his head” if someone insists on being politically incorrect.

Someday, Broadway shows like, "The King and I", “West Side Story” or “South Pacific”, “The Bird Cage”, may have to be revised for language and theme correctness.

Lastly, I was not offended because I thought it was funny, and you may see it here for the last time because no one else will re-tell it, when I was told by a Caucasian these two Filipino jokes.

“What do you call a Filipino contortionist?”  Answer: “A Manila folder”.

“What is a Filipino love call?”  Answer:  “Pssst”.

I’ve been told those are both politically incorrect, unless a Filipino tells it.  I guess I have eternal immunity if I were to re-tell them.