Our recent discussion in class on African American humorists was interesting to me. I am very interested, as I may have mentioned before, in racial humor, particularly self-deprecating humor. In fact, I am writing my final paper on Chappelle's Show and the where the line is crossed through parody/satire. I will probably blog about some of my ideas for that later.
However, I first wanted to blog about why this topic interests me in the first place. Humor, to me, is at its best when it has a social purpose. I think that all works of creative expression can serve in this way, and humor is perhaps one of the most powerful. It is a great work that can make you laugh and later make you think.
Racial humor often works in this way. Gender humor does, too. But there are risks.
Self-deprecating humor can often act as a parody of the real injustice toward the group. When Chris Rock makes jokes about white people using the n-word, he is parodying a real issue. What does this parody do? Who does it reach?
Parody can draw attention to the real problem in a new way. People may not have recognized their own participation in the problem before hearing the joke. Often, though, I think the effect is much more subtle. Sometimes the audience doesn't really recognize themselves as part of the problem, but they can still be enlightened by a comedic performance on the topic.
Who's the audience, then? Is it humor's responsibility to open the eyes of people who are doing wrong? Probably not. An overt racist is probably not going to be watching Chris Rock in the first place, and even if he/she was, it is unlikely that the show would cause any dramatic changes in thought.
People who recognize the injustice but are victims of it may find cathartic release in humor. It is a defense mechanism (a common theory about how humor works). But pointing out the obvious in a humorous way isn't necessarily socially helpful.
What about people who just haven't recognized the problem in the first place? This seems to be the audience that stands to benefit the most from this sort of parody. People who are neither victims nor perpetrators stand in a position to do something about injustice. Can humor help them recognize both the problem itself and their unique position to help solve it?
Am I asking too much of humor when I look at this possibility? I know that not all humor has this goal in mind, and I think that there are other equally valid goals, but this is the one that is most interesting to me.
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I think in order to answer your question here, we first have to decide if humor is effective. Most of the time there is an unfortunate tendency to merely laugh at parodies of serious problems, and any action they may be calling us to take/injustices they want us to realize, get lost in our enjoyment of the joke. To at least try to answer some of your question, I don't think you are asking too much of humor, because sometimes it is the best (if not the most nonthreatening) means by which people can call on others to change a real problem.
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