I don’t care about The Slap in any real sense, but I got mad as hell yesterday when a writer told her huge audience that white women should quit giving “hot takes” on this because we don’t understand the nuances. What I saw in a clip was one guy massively overreacting to a somewhat lame joke by assaulting a coworker on international live TV. But I might be wrong.
Edited to note: the writer wasn’t even a Black person.
I loved this piece and agree that being able to take a joke is a sign of strength. We should be helping each other to be strong, and one way to do that is to laugh together.
When I saw the video of the slap, I found myself wishing that Jada Smith, instead of scowling at the dumb joke, had flexed a bicep or done a push-up or something like that to remind us that GI Jane was not only bald but also very strong. The Smiths could have turned an awkward moment into a triumph, instead of a debacle, if only they had responded with humor instead of anger.
Kindly, I'm very skeptical that attempting to eliminate bullying among school age children is long run beneficial to those children. Like everyone else, I hated being teased or "picked on" in school -- I believe everyone does. However, as a consequence of this I believe you develop important adult-necessary skills. Sticks and stones, vs words can never hurt me (unless I allow them to).
I am in my 50's, and the young people in the job market are, on average, completely unprepared to deal with anything they perceive as criticism or picking on them. I don't believe we're making a better world, and I don't believe we've done them any favors (though the best of them are fantastic).
Also, like nearly everything else these days, bullying is consistently redefined more and more broadly until anything vaguely negative is now bullying.
I vividly recall advice columnist (and gay man) Dan Savage instructing all those writing in with questions through the 90's to begin their letters with "Hey Faggot", as a conscious way to disempower that word, and show that it had no magic powers to demean or harm anyone who took back their agency. I thought that was wisdom, though I'm sure today he'd be voted off the island instantly.
This is so good, thank you. I actually attended the Oscars. I don't think people realize just how shocking that was to live through and how hard it's been, even for me, someone sitting in the nosebleeds. I can't imagine what my new hero, Chris Rock, was feeling. But I know that look, all right. That look of being slapped and humiliated in a room full of people. It took a while to get to anger, though, which is why everyone stood up and applauded. Now I think, FUCK THAT GUY. FUCK HIM. Entitled ASSHOLE.
"Is America becoming humorless?" - Yes. I knew there was a huge problem, and why I am one of your subscribers, when the late night comedy hosts could only joke about Trump supporters and Republicans but not the absolutely mock-worthy, self-important, self-pitying ultra woke left. It is as fertile a ground as there could ever be. Chris Rock, bless him, took one shot. It was such a mild joke. And if he hadn't been slapped by Will Smith you can bet Twitter would have been consumed by rage at that joke. Now they don't know what to do. Back and forth they go, trying to find the right direction to point their justice machine.
We need comedy so we don't rip each others' faces off. We need comedy to feel sane. We need comedy because do you think Stalin or Mao or Putin allows for it? And if you don't allow for it what have you become? We simply need more comedians to be brave and to give up their good merit badges and start staring down the mob.
My main and only takeaway of the Slap was confirmation that rich people literally have privilege- “privy lege”, “private law”.
If a stressed out grocery store stocker whaps a Karen, she gets fired. If I punch my neighbor for blasting music at 2 AM, I get sued. If a guy slugs a guy in a bar for talking shit about his girlfriend, the cops come out and he gets a felony conviction.
But Will Smith is of a higher caste, and everybody knows it, and nobody in particular seems interested in trying out egalitarianism in lieu of what we have.
As is the case with most of this stuff, I blame Trump's election for breaking people's brains. He was an unapologetically nasty, crude, trollish person.
And so liberals, following Newton's Third Law in the social arena, ran screaming in the other direction and became Woke puritans. Hence the environment around comedy we have today.
This was awesome Jeff. I also kept thinking how comedy can empower by demonstrating the absurdity of people being marginalized by ignorance or even hate. Thinking of the film “JoJo Rabbit”.
One opposite of comedy is the sacred. We all might consider certain things beyond humor, but the more topics and people we consider sacred, the less comedy (and criticism) we will tolerate. It does not matter whether we are motivated by classic religious doctrine or modern social justice doctrine. Sacred kills comedy--sometimes literally.
The real problems then begin when we demand that our growing sacred doctrine becomes national law. Come on, people, we just spent centuries trying to de-escalate our legal classic puritanism. Stop trying to impose this Neo-puritanism.
I don't like anyone that can't take a joke and especially ones who you have to he all close lipped around because you know they might fly off the handle when you say the wrong thing. Who wants to spend time with those people?
I gave up on the Oscars (and other awards shows) because I was sick and tired of pampered multi-millionaires lecturing the rest of us about their precious social causes. (even though I agree with most of said causes) It just strikes me as sanctimonious.
What I'm interested in is the magic of show business: I like the performing arts and appreciate when practitioners share their insights. Can we get back to that?
Re The Slap, massively cringey. But I couldn't help chuckling over the irony of it: Honor Culture and Black on Black violence at the Oscars.
Are we collectively losing our sense of humor? Seems that way to me.
I'll be the hard-headed reductionist and say that by any giggles-per-capita-type metric, The Slap clearly raised America's level of merriment rather than lowering it. (So many Twitter jokes!) Maybe in the long run it'll deter enough would-be stand-ups to lower the overall joke level, but that feels like worrying about kids avoiding soccer because of Zinedine Zidane's headbutt.
Being powerless doesn't always equate with being weak. And there, my friends, you have the essence of much Jewish comedy--which this author does not mention at all as exemplary of the kinds of self-deprecation, resourcefulness, and determination he cites as the basis for a non-fascist society. Jews are often funny. It's a deeply engrained part of our culture and heritage. Very, very few of us are fascists. The world's only Jewish state most certainly is not.
I don’t care about The Slap in any real sense, but I got mad as hell yesterday when a writer told her huge audience that white women should quit giving “hot takes” on this because we don’t understand the nuances. What I saw in a clip was one guy massively overreacting to a somewhat lame joke by assaulting a coworker on international live TV. But I might be wrong.
Edited to note: the writer wasn’t even a Black person.
I loved this piece and agree that being able to take a joke is a sign of strength. We should be helping each other to be strong, and one way to do that is to laugh together.
When I saw the video of the slap, I found myself wishing that Jada Smith, instead of scowling at the dumb joke, had flexed a bicep or done a push-up or something like that to remind us that GI Jane was not only bald but also very strong. The Smiths could have turned an awkward moment into a triumph, instead of a debacle, if only they had responded with humor instead of anger.
Kindly, I'm very skeptical that attempting to eliminate bullying among school age children is long run beneficial to those children. Like everyone else, I hated being teased or "picked on" in school -- I believe everyone does. However, as a consequence of this I believe you develop important adult-necessary skills. Sticks and stones, vs words can never hurt me (unless I allow them to).
I am in my 50's, and the young people in the job market are, on average, completely unprepared to deal with anything they perceive as criticism or picking on them. I don't believe we're making a better world, and I don't believe we've done them any favors (though the best of them are fantastic).
Also, like nearly everything else these days, bullying is consistently redefined more and more broadly until anything vaguely negative is now bullying.
I vividly recall advice columnist (and gay man) Dan Savage instructing all those writing in with questions through the 90's to begin their letters with "Hey Faggot", as a conscious way to disempower that word, and show that it had no magic powers to demean or harm anyone who took back their agency. I thought that was wisdom, though I'm sure today he'd be voted off the island instantly.
Go kindly and well -
This is so good, thank you. I actually attended the Oscars. I don't think people realize just how shocking that was to live through and how hard it's been, even for me, someone sitting in the nosebleeds. I can't imagine what my new hero, Chris Rock, was feeling. But I know that look, all right. That look of being slapped and humiliated in a room full of people. It took a while to get to anger, though, which is why everyone stood up and applauded. Now I think, FUCK THAT GUY. FUCK HIM. Entitled ASSHOLE.
"Is America becoming humorless?" - Yes. I knew there was a huge problem, and why I am one of your subscribers, when the late night comedy hosts could only joke about Trump supporters and Republicans but not the absolutely mock-worthy, self-important, self-pitying ultra woke left. It is as fertile a ground as there could ever be. Chris Rock, bless him, took one shot. It was such a mild joke. And if he hadn't been slapped by Will Smith you can bet Twitter would have been consumed by rage at that joke. Now they don't know what to do. Back and forth they go, trying to find the right direction to point their justice machine.
We need comedy so we don't rip each others' faces off. We need comedy to feel sane. We need comedy because do you think Stalin or Mao or Putin allows for it? And if you don't allow for it what have you become? We simply need more comedians to be brave and to give up their good merit badges and start staring down the mob.
Alopecia is not cancer. We all struggle with our hair.
My main and only takeaway of the Slap was confirmation that rich people literally have privilege- “privy lege”, “private law”.
If a stressed out grocery store stocker whaps a Karen, she gets fired. If I punch my neighbor for blasting music at 2 AM, I get sued. If a guy slugs a guy in a bar for talking shit about his girlfriend, the cops come out and he gets a felony conviction.
But Will Smith is of a higher caste, and everybody knows it, and nobody in particular seems interested in trying out egalitarianism in lieu of what we have.
As is the case with most of this stuff, I blame Trump's election for breaking people's brains. He was an unapologetically nasty, crude, trollish person.
And so liberals, following Newton's Third Law in the social arena, ran screaming in the other direction and became Woke puritans. Hence the environment around comedy we have today.
One of the few pieces about The Slap worth a damn. Great read!
This was awesome Jeff. I also kept thinking how comedy can empower by demonstrating the absurdity of people being marginalized by ignorance or even hate. Thinking of the film “JoJo Rabbit”.
One opposite of comedy is the sacred. We all might consider certain things beyond humor, but the more topics and people we consider sacred, the less comedy (and criticism) we will tolerate. It does not matter whether we are motivated by classic religious doctrine or modern social justice doctrine. Sacred kills comedy--sometimes literally.
The real problems then begin when we demand that our growing sacred doctrine becomes national law. Come on, people, we just spent centuries trying to de-escalate our legal classic puritanism. Stop trying to impose this Neo-puritanism.
I don't like anyone that can't take a joke and especially ones who you have to he all close lipped around because you know they might fly off the handle when you say the wrong thing. Who wants to spend time with those people?
I gave up on the Oscars (and other awards shows) because I was sick and tired of pampered multi-millionaires lecturing the rest of us about their precious social causes. (even though I agree with most of said causes) It just strikes me as sanctimonious.
What I'm interested in is the magic of show business: I like the performing arts and appreciate when practitioners share their insights. Can we get back to that?
Re The Slap, massively cringey. But I couldn't help chuckling over the irony of it: Honor Culture and Black on Black violence at the Oscars.
Are we collectively losing our sense of humor? Seems that way to me.
The only worthwhile take on slapgate I’ve read. Well done.
I'll be the hard-headed reductionist and say that by any giggles-per-capita-type metric, The Slap clearly raised America's level of merriment rather than lowering it. (So many Twitter jokes!) Maybe in the long run it'll deter enough would-be stand-ups to lower the overall joke level, but that feels like worrying about kids avoiding soccer because of Zinedine Zidane's headbutt.
I’d like to make woke Gen Z/millennials do a Ludovico technique to a Don Rickles roast or any Sam Kinnison routine!
Being powerless doesn't always equate with being weak. And there, my friends, you have the essence of much Jewish comedy--which this author does not mention at all as exemplary of the kinds of self-deprecation, resourcefulness, and determination he cites as the basis for a non-fascist society. Jews are often funny. It's a deeply engrained part of our culture and heritage. Very, very few of us are fascists. The world's only Jewish state most certainly is not.