Jokes create stereotyping disputes

Yesterday, I went to see “The Hangover,” the No. 1 movie at the box office, and already No. 1 in the hearts of many young men who have finally grown weary of quoting Wedding Crashers. It held no surprises for me, no envelope-pushing comedic work, but it was funny, and I feel like it was $7 well-spent, mostly because of its quotability and a lead actor named Bradley Cooper, whom I find attractive in a sleazy sort of way. I laughed. Roger Ebert laughed, and so did Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly. While they admitted that it was full of “frat-boy” humor, they, and many other critics, deemed the film pleasant and harmless.

However, the Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips disagreed. He gives the film 1 1/2 stars, informing us that “’The Hangover’ offers two female archetypes to speak of: miserable shrew and fantasy sex toy. The film’s also a little bit racist, plus a little bit homophobic.” He is right. Rachel Harris plays the “shrew,” Heather Graham plays the “sex toy,” and Omar Epps plays “Black Doug,” a drug dealer. The stereotypes are there, probably consciously and with a sense of parody, but Phillips is so deeply offended, in spite being a middle-aged white male, that he simply cannot bring himself to laugh.

He was not the only one. On another website, Hollywood.com, an anonymous commenter shares: “I felt offended by the herpes joke — I have genital herpes.” Okay... well, the joke to which he is referring is from early in the movie: “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas- — except for herpes. That s*** will come back with you.” Sorry for the spoiler. Anyway, that’s true, is it not? There is no cure for genital herpes. A warning against exposing oneself to sexually transmitted diseases seems like a morsel of wisdom to me. How is that offensive?

Another thing I did this week, since I apparently have nothing better to do, is follow the feud between late night talk show host David Letterman and Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. Letterman made a couple of jokes regarding Gov. Palin’s recent trip to New York, in which he mentions Palin’s daughter (she has more than one, and Letterman does not specify) in sexual context. Sarah Palin immediately fired back on her Web site: “Concerning Letterman’s comments about my young daughter (and I doubt he’d ever dare make such comments about anyone else’s daughter): Laughter incited by sexually-perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is not only disgusting, but it ... contributes to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men.”

Now, I’ve always been more of a Leno gal, myself. I don’t think these particular jokes are funny at all, but I found myself wanting to side with Letterman here. I’m usually all about some women’s rights, so that’s odd. Letterman argues that he was referring to Palin’s much more well-known 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, who is an unwed mother, a scandal for Palin’s conservative campaign for vice-president. And even he admitted, “It was a bad joke.” And it was. I understand Palin’s horrified personal reaction, but I found the logic of correlating a Late Show one-liner with any actual sexual assault statistics to be rather far-fetched. But most of all, I suppose I feel that, after all, she is a politician; Palin’s indignation that a comedian would poke fun at her (unheard of!) is somewhat overblown. To justify her reaction, she used this as an opportunity to convince us how progressive and socially conscious she is, thus authorizing her to demand that her brand of political correctness be made standard by CBS executives.

I’m not advocating the degradation or injury of anyone, but since when are people using sophomoric summer comedies and lame late-night jokes to determine their personal morals? The truth is, these things are symptoms of social problems, not the causes. People like “anonymous” and Sarah Palin know this as well as you or I. It’s not about the issues, it’s about their own self-image, and their insecurity is highlighted by their determination to hear themselves talk. It seems to me that in this world, where everyone has a forum to share their thoughts, it’s too easy to seem socially aware and intelligent by spouting some clichés and acting insulted on someone else’s behalf. If they really cared, they’d be doing something about it.

It’s not good to objectify women or stereotype minorities. Sexually transmitted diseases aren’t funny. Letterman’s jokes were tasteless and unnecessary; his apology shouldn’t have taken almost a week. But complaining about other people’s choices has very little to do with living with your own. Free speech is, or at least should be, an indisputable fact of life in this country, and humorists will always take advantage of that to try and get a cheap laugh. Instead of worrying about not offending anyone at all, I want to encourage us to more openness and honesty about this society’s problems. There’s a time enough for establishing a dialogue; it’s okay to laugh, even at ourselves.

Robbie Wright is a senior in English. She can be reached at rwrigh24@utk.edu.