Why Punching Down Will Never Be Funny

[meow2u3]

There’s a reason why jesters made fun of kings. Earlier this week, Jesse Watters, a correspondent for The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News, provided us with an excellent reminder that taking someone down a notch is never worthwhile if you’re doing it from above.

Watters visited New York’s Chinatown in light of the many, many comments made about China in the first presidential debate in late September. And as one does when they speak to Chinese-Americans, Watters asked people if they knew karate (which is Japanese), asked if he should bow as a greeting, got a foot massage, and seemingly willfully botched the Chinese language. The segment was spliced with clips from Chinatown and of Mr. Miyagi from Karate Kid (JAPANESE), and even used that “stereotypical Chinese nine-note riff” during the title card. Later in studio, Watters and Bill O’Reilly joked about how the Chinese are too polite a people to just walk away from the microphone to begin with.

“When you go down to Chinatown, seems like everybody was aware of what’s going on,” O’Reilly said. “Some people say it’s very insulated and they don’t interact with American politics, but it looked like everybody knew what was going on.”

Watters grinned and laughed. “You thought people knew what was going on?”

https://www.buzzfeed.com/scaachikoul/why-punching-down-will-never-be-funny?utm_term=.ckyWGAq2M#.isy8eXvLx

Only twisted deplorables think punching down, i.e., mocking the defenseless, is funny. The rest of us normal people, not so much.

[Jason1961]

1. Not surprised

Bill O'Reilly is a terrible person, he needs to be taken off the air

[Saviolo]

2. I had the same thought!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028211573

Good article

[Donald Ian Rankin]

3. I think you've wrongly conflated "funny" with "ethical".

If people are laughing at something then it is funny, full stop. That's what "funny" *means*.

As soon as you make the argument about "is this joke funny?" rather than "is it morally acceptable to tell this joke?" you've lost, because if people are laughing at it then any fool can see that you're obviously objectively wrong.

The important point is that just because a joke is funny doesn't mean it's OK to tell it.

Funny and ethical are two different axes. There are unethical humorists I find extremely funny (Benny Hill, for example), and things that are totally inoffensive but not especially funny (your average accountancy textbook, for example).