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Oksana Villeda

Nicole Warlich

English 100

03/09/2021

Essay 1 Rough Draft

In the Rhetoric of Humor, In the article, “Native American Stand-up Comedy.” It’s

fascinating to know that comedian's objectives are more than just to make people laugh, they

also use their humor to influence others to acknowledge the true realities of what goes on in the

world today. Using humor, especially irony and sarcasm, it helps advocate critical thinking to

open debates about serious situations that are not discussed openly. Often, a comedian may use

topics such as racial inequalities in their act to spread awareness on racism.

Take Comedian Dave Chapelle for example, in his show, “The Chapelle’s show,” he

exemplifies humor as a tool of social advocacy in response to the climate and the historical

legacy of racism in the United States. In this quote, he states, “The only way you can know where

the line is, is if you cross it.” And it is true, in order to spread awareness on an issue, you have

to push boundaries, you have to make the people uncomfortable. It’s the only way that makes

people think because it forces them to look in the mirror and confront the realities that we’d

usually prefer to ignore.

In the article, “Perspectives on Comedy and Performance as Radical Disability

Activism,” The writer has chosen comedy and humor as a way of bonding with an audience to

promote critical thinking and dialogue around the meaning of disability. He talks about the

unemployment rates of people who suffer with impairments and disabilities and explains how

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low it is. Even though it’s a serious cause of concern, he uses comedy because it enables him as a

performer to cross these types of boundaries, just like how Dave Chapelle does when he uses his

comedy to express the realities of racism.

John Morreal, who is a founder of the International Society for Humor Studies comments

in this article how social bonding is created by humor and laughter. (67) In this article he also

states that, “This social bonding seems to work especially well when the humor is based on

either some strength in the group or some shortcoming in opponents of the group,” meaning that

laughter forms divisions as well as bonds between people. Laugher can form bonds between

people because we look up to people who are funny. Someone who has a good sense of humor

appears intelligent, trustworthy, and just a down to earth and ideal person to be around. A good

comedian who has all those qualities can be very influential as well. Humor presents an

important pillar in influencing the development of society as a whole. Humor is just one of the

many common forms of human communication and social interaction, so it is clear how its social

character, although not always evident, plays an important role in shaping society.

In the article, “When the Truth Hurts, tell a joke,” Stephen Rosenfield, a founder and

director of the American Comedy institute in New York City states that, “Comedians don’t start

out to change the world, but in the end, that’s what they do,” he also states, “Comedians are

aware of the power of jokes to change societies, but they’re not necessarily idealistic about it. A

comedian’s first concern is to find funny material. That is his job.” Which is true, their main goal

is to make you laugh but also open your mind up to off limit topics as well.

It reminds me when I attended my very first live stand-up comedy performance. I was

about eight-teen years old. I’m not really sure who the comedian was, But I remember a bit of his

comedy skit. He spoke about many topics but one particular topic he highlighted on the most,

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was about homophobia. At first a lot of people in the audience were shocked, including myself. I

was thinking, “Wow, he really went there.” as he was easing the audience in with each joke,

which seemed almost nerve wrecking, he finally got to the punch line. At the end of the skit, he

said, “Now. I’d like you all to meet my HUSBAND, Kevin.” The whole room exploded in

laughter, almost no one saw that coming. Greg Giraldo, a Harvard Law School graduate who

turned comic states, “A good joke provides tension, and then, release of that tension. You build

the tension by saying things that are controversial. The release is the laugh. The bigger the

surprise or insight in your joke, the bigger the laugh.” I couldn’t agree anymore with that

statement, what makes all of this work is the laugh. If it’s funny, people can treat heavy content

lightly, no matter what the topic is.

In conclusion, humor is and will always be a social concept. It is also evolving as well.

Every single day humor is impacting and changing the attitudes within our society and it

becomes evident as its exposure in our lives constantly grows. For example, we can simply scroll

through any social media platform and see thousands if not millions of photos that are called

“Memes” and we can relate to them. They’re countless themes of comic humor that surround us

and one way or another, it does shape our lives. It’s going to take a while longer before people

start accepting the differences of humor, but the positive changes are greater and more evident

every day. A simple quote by Erma Bombeck states, “When humor goes, there goes

civilization.” meaning, life without humor would be meaningless, empty, and a hell of a lot more

boring.

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Works Cited

Boyle Kirk, The Rhetoric of Humor, “Native American Stand-up Comedy.”

Boyle Kirk, The Rhetoric of Humor. “Perspectives on Comedy and Performance as

Radical Disability Activism,”

Richards Ryan, Cohen Roger, “When the Truth Hurts, tell a Joke: Why America Needs

Its Comedians” Humanityinaction.org