This is my response to Walker's lead blog.


First of all, I think that Anthony Jeselnik is very funny as I very much enjoy dark humor. I think that many people believe there is something wrong or immoral about dark humor. However, in my opinion, this is not the case for a couple of reasons. First of all. and most obviously, we have the relief theory. Relief theory states that relief is achieved by talking about things which we typically can not talk about. For example,  in Jeselnik, we see him talking about topics like gun violence, dementia, etc.

However, I think that one could look at the relief theory from two different angles, and view Jeselnik's comments from two different angles.Through these, we can see the value and purpose of dark humor. Firstly, relief can function by relieving the individual of certain societal restrictions.That is, in humor, the individual is no longer obliged to stay silen about taboo subjects. Because of this suspension of the oppressive rules that typically govern our speech and actions, a great feeling of relief(resulting in laughter) occurs. However, another way of looking at relief theory is by viewing it as a means to relieving the individual of some of the trauma inherent in many dark topics. For example, in an ordinary context, we may feel so sickened by the thought of gun violence against kids, that it is deeply unpleasant to talk about the subject seriously. On the other hand, we can talk about thee topics much more easily in comedy. As a result of this, we are able to actually think thoughts and say things we would typically try to suppress. This is the other side to relief theory, and we see this portrayed very clearly in Jeselnik's style of humor. By understanding this two-fold cathartic aspect to relief theory, we can see the value in comedians like Jeselnik.

Comments

  1. Kimberly KiepekNovember 21, 2019 at 1:24 PM

    I also think that this is an important way to start conversations regarding these complex issues rather than remaining silent and not talking about important issues that should be discussed. This is an important way to start social change by sparking conversations (which is what I wrote my last essay about!)

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  2. Alex NNovember 21, 2019 at 10:21 PM

    I feel like though relief theory very much works for this type of humor, another type of relief that plays a big factor is when he gets to the inevitable punchline that you know will be very different from the setup. The audience is always on edge trying to guess where the joke is going and cannot relax until he finishes.

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