Log onto Facebook today and what do we see? Politicians talking in circles. The media misconstruing the truth about what's happening in our world. Cases of injustice and miscommunication everywhere and there is seemingly nothing we can do about it. We are due for a change but we don't know how to break through the problems, and even chipping away at them seems like a losing battle. How can we possibly laugh at a time like this?
The answer? Well, we have to!
There is a reason Saturday Night Live made such a splash when it first premiered on NBC in 1975. Up until that point we had plenty of comedic programs on TV, like variety shows, sitcoms like the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and late night talk shows that were full of laughs. But it wasn't until that original cast of SNL exploded into pop culture that we used these comedy programs to actually comment on the world around us. The laughs were no longer random, they came from an understanding of current events and a strong point of view, which is what people needed to hear in times of trouble.
Comedy has a range of different forms, from standup, to sketch, to sitcom, parody, web series and beyond. Any comic who is involved in this field for the right reason doesn't just do what they do to have the experience of hearing people laugh after the things they say. The reason comics create the things that they do is to present an alternate perspective for people to consider when they are looking objectively at their world. For example, Amy Schumer presented us with Trainwreck, a film that explored the unusual perspective of a woman who takes control of her sex life and is hard to pin down. Ah, a new perspective, bring it!
Or when you consider standup specials, Anthony Jeselnick is a notoriously politically incorrect standup who is known for joking about huge tragedies the very day after they happen. Could this be taken as insensitive? Sure! But when you watch him on Netflix and listen to him justify his decision to take on such dark comedy, it welcomes you into a perspective of someone who's coping mechanism is seeking the joy from negative circumstances almost immediately. The goal of comedy is to shake us out of our traditional individual view on these issues, and welcome us into a new mindset. Not only is the writing funny and we laugh ourselves silly, we walk out of the experience with someone else's perspective to think about.
Now, comedy is not free from it's own dark past, sexism in comedy has existed for an extremely long time, so much to the point that an article was published in Vanity Fair in 2007 entitled, 'Why Women Aren't Funny'. Naturally, to this strong and negative attitude, in reaction, comedians did what they do best: take that truth, and twist it. Without soapboxing, making speeches, promises or having any outright protest, women in comedy just quietly worked even harder to prove this statement wrong. It is through comedy we get the most enjoyable form of change: when you're writing jokes and making characters and funny story lines, it's so enjoyable that one doesn't even realize that huge strides are being made.
In occasions of mass outrage, it may be considered the individual's time to rise up to the challenge of making a change. Because of this view, we see millions of people trying to change the world for the better and feeling so constantly hopeless about the outcome. I believe it is as much the individual's responsibility to make change as it is to make joy. Thank god for comedians for being able to take impossibly dark situations, and shine a light on them to expose how truly ridiculous and laughable this world is. It's all about perspective, and thanks to comedy, we have been given a way to reflect on our society as a whole in a way that doesn't have to make us miserable and defensive. Imagine that, a world of positive people dealing with negative circumstances? Now that is the kind of world where change truly is possible.
