Ann Nguyen on Punching Down

Blame Ann Nguyen of Elle.com (7/24/2017) for introducing me to Caty Borum Chattoo’s The Laughter Effect. In her article, she says a few things about this new(-sh), progressive stand-up.

Punching up?

Nguyen recognizes that comedy is dangerous.  She’s not one of those that Colin Quinn mocks in The New York Story,

[C]omedy never punches down, it only punches up. I read that from fifty people that never did comedy, they all said… what? What?

I’ve sort of put Chattoo – who Nguyen interviewed for this article – into this boat, with her discussion of stand-up’s “less-told” historical roots in African-American and Jewish-American humor, which was used as both a way to challenge power dynamics – to punch up – and to cope with their circumstances. Chattoo says,

Comedy serves as a way for oppressed groups to make it through their existence. Comedy works as a coping mechanism, a resilient strategy.

Rather than just telling their stories, which can dwell on complex and dark social issues, comedy can raise those issues and despite them, evoke feelings of optimism and joy.

Counters

While this may have been the way that it worked, others might argue that this comedy was an ineffectual distraction – humor didn’t free the slaves or protect the Jewish people from oppression. Further, it was just one type of humor, and some of the others weren’t so nice. Nguyen notes,

Historically, stand-up has always pushed the boundaries of good taste, making the medium susceptible to offensive jokes that can reinforce power dynamics and perpetuate oppressive ideas. Because nothing is off-limits, the utilization of bigoted racial tropes, misogyny, and inaccurate depictions of minorities runs rampant. See Anjelah Johnson’s stereotypic portrayal of Asian women who work in nail salons for just one famed example.

So Nguyen recognizes that perhaps historically stand-up has always pushed boundaries, but not always in a good and progressive way.  However, rather than focus on the past, let’s look at the present.

Currently

When using humor as activism, Chattoo notes,

There is a high level of sophistication that goes into making truly funny jokes that also bring light to activism. The jokes are only funny when they are poking fun of the power dynamics, not the poor people themselves.

Yes, there is a level of sophistication required, and yes, if we are to be activist, we should try to punch up; but jokes that punch down are not funny? Funny to whom? If people didn’t laugh at Anjelah Johnson’s jokes, she would stop doing them or risk losing gigs.

Changing audiences

To be fair, if we believe Chattoo’s sources, audience expectations are changing.  They seek out humor containing messages, and they look for those messages.

Audiences who seek out smart, civically-focused comedy and entertainment may do so for more than one reason—to be entertained and to make sense of serious information…. And when audiences seek and use entertainment with active “truth-seeking motivations,” they process the civic information in such a way that sparks “reflective thoughts…issue interest, and information seeking.” (Chattoo citing Young)

Perhaps now it is more necessary to punch up, rather than down, given what these active audiences want.  Perhaps now, as Nguyen says, “to bring attention to social issues and care for the community through comedy means that there is no room for jokes that make fun of the powerless.” While perhaps not unique to the current moment, this effect seems to have increased in recent years.  And comedians are responding.

Examples

Nguyen notes the sharing and coping functions of comedy in Margaret Cho talking about her miscarriage and in the phenomenon of Black Twitter. She also notes it in the stand-up of Phoebe Robinson, who says,

The world that we live in does not like women, does not like women of color, and does not like queer women…. I think every comedian at heart is saying, “I have all these things that I want to say, and I want to connect with people, but I’m not quite sure how to do that in real life.”  So I do it through comedy. Then people will hear me and it will make sense to them.

Nguyen also notes Robinson’s progressive attempts to push boundaries, to create new types of comedy and set different goals.

I think the best thing for me was that I freed myself from the rules and parameters on how you can do [comedy].

Nguyen’s take on this?

Instead, … she’s used humor to inform, resist, or comment on the oppression that shapes her experiences…. [These women of color] reject the paths that typically white and typically male comedians have charted. Instead, the gags and punch lines shared by these women of color have contributed to a comedy that cares for and recognizes their authentic selves.