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What’s Happening to McConnell isn’t Funny [1]

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Date: 2023-09-08

Let’s get a few things out of the way here. I do not like Mitch McConnell. I do not feel sympathy for him. I felt some empathy for him when I saw the videos of him blanking out. I think that’s a human thing to feel. But if he dies he dies, I don’t care. And more importantly, I don’t expect you to feel any particular way about that.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on to my point- jokes about his condition aren’t funny.

Not because they’re directed at him. They’re not funny because some things just aren’t funny.



We’ve all known this since we were kids- our parents (hopefully) corrected us when we made jokes about kids with various conditions at school. Our parents presumably didn’t know much about those kids before saying this. Those kids might have been total jerks. But they warned us about making jokes about their conditions because some things aren’t to be joked about.



I’ll give a short list, by no means exhaustive, of some subjects generally considered not funny:

The Holocaust

Rape

Child Molestation

Animal Abuse

Lynching

Degenerative Disease

Mentally Challenged People

Police Brutality

Additionally, depending on who we are, we’re not allowed to use certain words. These include the obvious like the N-word, the F-word (not that F word, say fuck all you want), etc. This is because we carve out exceptions for people who are taking ownership of words that society has foisted on them. So yeah, if you’re dealing with whatever McConnell is dealing with, have at it. You personally, not your mom, or your spouse, or your uncle. It doesn’t work that way.

The reason we don’t joke about these things is that we don’t want to trivialize them. We don’t want to make people who have suffered them feel like their pain is funny. Again, if any of these apply to you, then you have license to joke about them. Not anyone else. And if you’re suffering from something you also don’t have license to transfer that right to joke about them. I have a condition I deal with (not mentioned here) and at first I really didn’t think it was funny. Now I’m ok talking about it with friends. I’m at a place where I could laugh about it. Not everyone is. Deciding for others where they should be on that journey is out of line.

But wait, what if someone is a super skilled comedian?

The above statements are not my attempt at making a law of physics. There might be exceptions. But let’s be clear here-

None of us is Richard Pryor. None of us is Maria Bamford.

None of us is George Carlin.



In fact, most of us would be lucky to be Kevin Hart or Iliza Schlesinger. In reality we’re telling Rob Schneider level jokes. Sorry, your knock knock who’s there? Not Mitch, his brain is broke hur hur joke isn’t getting you a Netflix special.

But it’s punching up!

Great, still not funny.



Would it be funny to l make a joke calling Clarence Thomas the N-word? How about Amy Comey Barret being raped? Can I joke about Stephen Miller going to the gas chamber?

These are awful and powerful people. But if I were to make those kinds of joke, I’d be the asshole.



Stop being so sanctimonious!

Are you accusing me of not being able to take a joke? Where have I heard this before?

We all mess up. Rather than get defensive, take a moment and think about how much it really matters that you can’t tell a certain kind of joke. You can still tell plenty of other jokes about Mitch.

But I REALLY hate him!

So do I, still not funny.

…

Some things are just off limits guys, sorry. Don’t be Joe Rogan. Don’t be Bill Maher. Don’t be Barri Weiss or any of the other people upset about cancel culture. I love jokes, but they don’t bring world peace, solve climate change or cure cancer. Be smart with what you joke about and try to be kind.

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