I’ve already written about Bill Maher’s recent N-word problem; however it’s not the first time he’s been a part of a discussion about racist language. I thought I’d revisit that event, and point out some key differences between Silverman and Maher.
Silverman
On July 11, 2001, comic Sarah Silverman made an appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, where she told the following joke:
I was telling a friend that I had to serve jury duty and I wanted to get out of it. So my friend said “Why don’t you write something inappropriate on the form, like ‘I hate chinks’?” But I don’t want people to think I was racist, so I just filled out the form and I wrote “I love chinks.” And who doesn’t?
NBC aired the joke uncensored. Asian American rights activist Guy Aoki saw the joke on television and began a media campaign claiming that Silverman was in fact a racist. After Silverman made a guest appearance on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher (7/22/2001), Aoki was invited to debate Silverman on that same program (air date: 9/22/2001). Maher asked that the language of the show not be censored, and in his summary statements noted that this issue was dangerously close to impeding our free speech. Silverman retold the joke on both programs, stated that censoring words, especially those used by comics, does nothing to end racism, and then included several other jabs (such as calling Aoki a douche bag), most of which now appear in her act and her 2005 concert film, Jesus is Magic. Aoki made most of his points well, stating that racist language use, even in an ironic (or presumably, commentary) form, allows their use – and therefore their ability to harm – to continue.
The “with/at” question
There’s a problem in here that I call the “with/at” question. Are we laughing with someone? Or are we laughing at someone? Or both? And who is the object of each?
Victims & Butts
We should note that this distinction comes from a model of superiority. In a frame of tension release, we could imagine a distinction among stressors and triggers; what is creating the tension and what triggers that release. We would always laugh at stressors in light of the release, but even this relationship can be complicated when one delves deeper.
This would seem to solve the “with/at” problem: we always laugh with the victim, at the perceived butt (to the extent that these are different). This distinction is crucial because, as Samuel Janus states, “The ability to make a person laugh with [a minority group], not at them, is a vital one” (as cited in Horowitz, 7). However, this distinction makes things more complicated as we now have to navigate new potential sources of humor.
Application
For instance, in Silverman’s “chink” joke, she is the focal point of the joke. However, we can read her as the butt of the joke, as the one who believes that hate is the most hateful term in the declaration and we can laugh at her. Or we can read her as the victim of a racist system in which chink is ok to say, but hate is not, and we can laugh at the problems of such a system.
Note that both of these interpretations rely on the notion that she’s a reliable and harmonious narrator – that this really happened she actually means what she is saying – and most of us don’t believe that for a second.
Thus we may infer that she has ulterior motives. If we believe that Silverman has a good reason for telling this joke, we may then perceive our laughter as laughing with her, at the racist system. If we believe she’s just trying to get away with saying a bad word, we can either laugh with her as she subverts the system that prohibits her from saying chink, or we can be outraged (as was Guy Aoki), thus supporting that system.
Similarly, while Maher tries to cast himself as the butt of the joke – he is the “house n-word” – his critics thought he was just trying to get away with saying the word, and were outraged. True, we can laugh at him for having the audacity to say the word, or we can laugh with him for getting away with saying the word – but then, he didn’t really, did he?
Further, because it was an off-the-cuff remark and not a prepared joke, Maher can’t claim he was trying to comment on a racist system. It’s just a simple dick joke. And not a particularly good one.
References:
Gilbert, Joanne. Performing Marginality: Humor, Gender and Cultural Critique. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University, 2004.
Horowitz, Susan. Queens of Comedy: Lucille Ball, Phyllis Diller, Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, and the New Generation of Funny Women. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Gordon and Breach, 1997.
Wilson, Nathan. Was That Supposed to be Funny? A Rhetorical Analysis of Politics, Problems and Contradictions in Contemporary Stand-Up Comedy. Dissertation in partial completion of the Ph.D. August, 2008.
