Depravity in Jelly

Alright, so I’m about a week late on this, but I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in on this issue/news story. As a (at best) semi comedian, but more so as a huge fan of everything that is suppose to make people laugh, I know what I’m talking about when I talk about comedy (and I don’t really claim that about many things). This isn’t even going to be an opinion… I’m fucking right on this one. I’m right, because this isn’t going to be about a sense of humor, because that’s a subjective subject (gotta be a better way to put that). I’ve changed my mind on that last bit… a lot of this is going to be about a sense of humor and how MOST people in the world need to get one. 

Norm MacDonald once said “The thing about jokes is, you just say the opposite of truth”. Comedy is lies and lies is comedy. Comedians say things they don’t mean. Almost everything is a lie. I have a joke that is 1 sentence long and it contains 2 lies and the second lie is 2 more lies in one. “I hope abortion becomes illegal again (lie), because I’m going to make a lot of money (2 lies). Now, it’s never ever EVER funny when someone explains a joke, but I’m going to explain this one. I don’t hope abortion becomes illegal again, at all. I would not make a lot of money, because performing a back-alley abortion is, I’m guessing, gross and dangerous. Also, I’m super lazy and I don’t know anything about underground advertising. The thing is, is that the person who would say “I hope abortion will become illegal again, so I can make a ton of money doing back-alley abortions” isn’t me in the slightest, but the joke is that I may look like someone who would. 

This is essentially what Tracy Morgan was trying to do. He was trying to say something awful for comedic effect and he didn’t think anybody was going to take it seriously, because he’s a comedian. “Trying” being the key word of that sentence, he obviously didn’t/couldn’t pull it off. I know for a fact that someone somewhere could COULD pull that awful shit off (Daniel Tosh, being the first to come to mind, but not the last). It would have to be preceded by other awful things that are obviously jokes that establish that the comedian is joking… you know, like a comedian. Someone said once “Comedians don’t say funny things, they say things funny.” So, what happened to Tracy Morgan is he didn’t say that awful shit funny enough, that and he’s not a very good stand-up comedian (oh, yeah this part is opinion). He’s a hilarious person/personality/comedic actor. The man said one of my favorite things ever said on SNL ever (When referring to the KFC Shredder (chopped lettuce and mayo in a bag) “I’m a BIG MAN and I need a BIG SHREDDER”). But as a stand-up he’s just not that great. Download/pirate his album Life, Love & Lust… see if you can go more than a few tracks without turning it off, I couldn’t, it’s awful. It’s not “awful” contentwise, it’s just not well executed. It’s hacky shock value and boring. 

So, was what he said funny? Is saying you’d stab your son to death if he were gay funny? Itshould be, here’s why… It’s a super serious subject and a really awful thing/act. In 1940 Charlie Chaplin made a movie called The Great Dictator, he portrayed an extremely Hitler like dictator character and also a bumbling jew that looks exactly like the Hitler character and it’s one of the silliest yet most serious movies ever made. See, in 1940 the US hadn’t yet decided to enter WWII. Listen, I’m not historian and I’m certainly not going to check facts, but I don’t think people really knew what Hitler was doing yet, just rumors and speculation… I don’t think it really hit us until we found the camps… please realize that I’m basing most of this on having watched Band of Brothers 6 years ago. BUT Chaplin made this movie that poked fun at all the horrible things that were happening in Germany at that time. Poking fun to make people look at this horrible thing closer.

I don’t feel like erasing that last part, but I feel like I just made a bad point. Also, I’m kind of liking that Band of Brothers joke. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is: Awful things can be hilarious, but you have to be laughing at the thing being awful. I can laugh at a racist/homophobic joke because of how awful it is when someone says it from a perspective that isn’t dripping with REAL hate, kind of just “hey check out how awful and wrong this joke is”. That’s laughing at stupidity. Laughing at hypothetical ignorant assholes who would think racist homophobic things like those jokes. It’s like when people get upset at something Homer says on the Simpsons or Peter says on Family Guy those two characters are two big dumb oafs and if you get mad at what they say, then you don’t get it. 

Alright, I’m getting sick of writing. When I started I knew I had a really good point, but I think I may have mucked it up in there somewhere. 

Anyway, my point is… Tracy Morgan is a comedian. Comedians are not to be taken completely seriously, mostly not at all. If he’s good or bad at stand-up is subjective, but he whether he was serious or not isn’t. He wasn’t at all serious. He wouldn’t stab his son to death if he were gay. He was kidding. Just not very well. 

Mik