1. Introduction

3. Dark humor is a genre of comic irreverence that flippantly
attacks society’s most sacredly serious subjects—especially
death (Gehring 1).
A genre that respects nothing, including the values of its
audience (49).
A particular attitude towards the world grounded on
disorder and absurdity—presents this as the real state of
the things.
Opposite of joviality, wit or sarcasm. Rather macabre and
ironic, an absurd turn of spirit that constitutes “the mortal
enemy of sentimentality,” and beyond that a “superior
revolt of the mind” (Polizzotti vi)

4. Absurdity and incongruous juxtaposition; thrives in disorder
Merging the sacred and the profane
Making the familiar uncanny (decontextualization)
Anti-heroic protagonists
Macabre fascination with death and the human body in general
(body fluids, guts)
Presentation of man as animal
Insensitivity to categories of identity (class, race, ethnic
background, age)
Shock value
Offensive or at least callous; as Breton puts it “the mortal enemy
of sentimentality”
Provides no reconciliation, harmony or closure

5. Brings uncomfortable material into social discourse
through a distancing mechanism.
 Laugh with rather than at
 Uncomfortable laughter—makes the familiar uncanny and
allows us to re-examine what we take for granted
 Self-identity through self-deprecation
Breaks censorship on tabooed subject matter (Bush
administration and torture)
Used to show the constructedness of institutions which
seem natural (the family, the State).
Makes us aware of our own place in the world
 Elicits specific reaction as opposed to apathy
 Community aspect of humor; how we relate to others
 Humor as a defense against the irrationality of the world

20. History

21. One of the main founders
of Surrealist artistic
movement in Europe
Break with the past
(especially in deviating
from traditional art forms
—low culture/high
culture)
Surrealism as a political
movement—anti-
establishment, anti-
bourgeouis

22. Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q.,1919Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917

23. Term first coined by Surrealist André Breton in 1916 .
Breton compiled Anthology of Dark Humor in 1936;
published it in 1940.
Undoubtedly not a new phenomenon.
Breton’s anthology includes figures such as Jonathan
Swift, the Marquis de Sade, Edgar Allen Poe, Charles
Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Pablo
Picasso, Franz Kafka, Salvador Dalí and Marcel
Duchamp.

24. Marquis de Sade, 1740-1814

25. Arthur Rimbaud, 1854-1891

26. Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900

27. Salvador Dalí, 1904-1989

28. André Breton:
“ A sense of the theatrical and (joyless) pointlessness of
everything.”
Lightning Rod: “We are touching upon a burning
subject; we are headed straight into a land of fire: the
gale winds of passion are alternately with us and against
us from the moment we consider lifting the veil from
this type of humor, whose manifest products we have
nonetheless managed to isolate, with a unique
satisfaction, in literature, art, and life” (Breton xiv).
Humor as a type of art

30. World War I—Authors and artists find it difficult to
give expression to such a cataclysmic conflict.
First conflict in which 20th
century technology came in
conflict with 19th
century tactics (technology of atrocity:
poison gas, airplane/areal bombing, efficient machine
guns).
European intellectuals of the time saw world war as
progressive and necessary to get rid of “the lower class
rabble.”
Omnipresence of brutal death and desensitization to it.

31. World War II—Incomparable atrocities on a mass
scale and crimes committed that were beyond
human imagination.
Hitler and the Nazi Party (Chaplin’s 1940 film
The Great Dictator)
Destruction of entire cities
Efficient mass killing (technology,
concentration camps)
Killing as an administrative function
(Eichmann)

33. Protest, cohesive function, medicine to prevent
madness
Dark humor utilized in the camps to combat Nazi
oppression, much like an automatic reflex
Viktor E. Frankl describes the mood present when
prisoners were led into a shower room which might
be a gas chamber:
“Most of us were overcome by a grim sense of
humor. We know that we had nothing left to lose
except our so ridiculously naked lives…we all tried
very hard to make fun.”
Dark humor referred to as “Jewish Novocain.”

34. Post World War II
Existentialism
Primacy of the absurd for the
foundation and operation of the
world (Camus and Sartre)
Man is alone in a godless
irrational world.
Negative situation as the universal
stage of life.
Plot of Camus’ The Stranger

35. Resurgence in the 1960s
Conrad Knickerboxer writes foundational text of the
genre, “Humor with a Mortal Sting.”
Looming threat of atomic bomb; fear of impending
annihilation (atomic bomb drills at schools, Cuban
Missile Crisis)
Disenchantment with utopic philosophy (failure of
Communism in practice)
Vietnam War—American media in particular starts
broadcasting “body counts” and breaks with previous
censorship on images of dead American soldiers.

36. Open-mindedness, acceptance of diversity,
critical thinking (combats “Groupthink”)
Liberates us from the narrow perspective of fight-
or-flight emotions (mitigates negative emotions
like fear or anger)
Acceptance of each other’s shortcomings because
they are reflective of one’s own behavior (defuses
conflict)
Allows you to examine yourself more objectively

38. CASE STUDY: Jon Stewart, “Even Better Than the
Real Thing,” The Daily Show, January 5th
, 2010
Defining the “good old days”
Nostalgia working toward abstraction, falsification
and blockage of actual historical memory
“Armchair nostalgia” and its appeal
Displacing/ignoring the present
Recourse to Edenic time and place that never
disappoints you because you can never attain it

39. Discussion
Current practitioners of
dark humor?
What purpose(s) does it
serve today?

40. Introduction to Rhetoric:
Ethos, Pathos, Logos

43. Making the Familiar Uncanny

44. Breton—archenemy of
sentimentality
Freud—the uncanny (unheimlich)
Bataille—taboos and
transgression
Bakhtin—the grotesque

52. What is the relationship between the familiar and the
uncanny? How does it change from one to the other?
How are sentimentalized groups or cultural icons
undermined?
What is the taboo? How does the material transgress
the taboo?
When does it become grotesque?

53. “The difference between the bizarre and
grotesque is merely one of degree. The
grotesque is more radical and more aggressive…
something which is very strange, and perhaps
ludicrous as well, is made so exceedingly
abnormal that our laughter at the ludicrous and
eccentric is intruded on by feelings of horror or
disgust; or, a scene or character which is
laughably eccentric suddenly becomes
problematic, and our reaction to it mixed,
through the appearance of something quite at
odds with the comic” (Thompson 13).

64. Listening for Dark Humor

67. Tendentious Jokes

70. Beyond Boundaries: Shit and Bodily
Secretions

72. At once part of us and not part of us
St. Augustine: “Inter faeces et urinam nascimur.” (We
are born between feces and urine.)
Mind/soul separated from body (soul is infinite and
will be resurrected, body will remain behind)
Division between higher and lower functions of the
human body
Head, eyes, ears, heart: thinking, perception, purity.
Bowels and sexual organs: unclean, humiliating, to be
hidden, impure.

73. Open body, body that leaks, orifices
Lack of boundaries between inside and outside
Shit
Mucus
Blood
Menstrual blood
Urine
Pus
Vomit
Semen and vaginal secretions

75. Promiscuity—transformation of human into plant form

77. Corpse is a mirror image of the I, which is not
identical to the self but yet familiar.
Cleanliness (hygiene of the funeral industry)
Burial rituals to dispose of the unclean corpse
Corpse not resurrected, although bodily semblance is

79. Definition: “The abject is not an ob-ject facing me, which
I name or imagine. Nor is it an ob-jest, an otherness
ceaselessly fleeing in a systematic quest of desire. What is
abject is not my correlative, which providing me with
someone or something else as support, would allow me to
be more or less detached and autonomous. The abject
has only one quality of the object—that of being opposed
to I. If the object, however, through its opposition, settles
me within the fragile texture of a desire for meaning,
which as a matter of fact, makes me homologous to it,
what is abject, on the contrary, the jettisoned object, is
radically excluded and draws me toward the place where
meaning collapses” (1-2).

80. “It lies outside, beyond the set, and does
not seem to agree to the latter’s rules of the
game. And yet, from its place of
banishment, the abject does not cease
challenging its master. Without a sign
(from him), it beseeches a discharge, a
convulsion, a crying out” (2).
Return of the repressed

81. “A massive and sudden emergence of
uncanniness, which familiar as it might
have been in an opaque and forgotten life,
now harries me as radically separate,
loathsome. Not me. Not that. But not
nothing either. A ‘something’ that I do not
recognize as a thing. A weight of
meaniglessness about which there is
nothing insignificant, and which crushes
me. On the edge of non-existence and
hallucination, of a reality that, if I
acknowledge it, annihilates me” (2).

82. Long-forgotten past—maternal body/infant (no
separation). Psychoanalytic explanation.
Causes fear but also inaugurates first feelings of loss
and want. Absence and nostalgia, incompleteness.
Marginality and opposition to hierarchies of
organization.
Above all, ambivalent and non-stationary.
Constant change—grotta.
Opposed to the clean and proper body—filth, the
profane.
CLASS DISCUSSION: Images of beauty and hygiene.
What does our society consider filth/unwanted?

85. The zombie:
Death, old age,
difference, sloppiness,
lack of boundaries
Blurs distinctions
between:
Living/dead
Human/animal
Human/inhuman
Inside/outside
Object of filth that must
be eliminated

89. “The one by whom the abject exists is thus a deject
who places (himself), separates (himself), situates
(himself), and therefore strays instead of getting his
bearings, desiring, belonging or refusing. Situationist
in a sense, and not without laughter—since laughter
is a way of placing or displacing abjection.
Necessarily dichotomous, somewhat Manichean, he
divides, excludes, and without, properly speaking,
wishing to know his abjections, is not at all unaware
of them, thus casting within himself the scalpel that
carries out his separation” (8).

90. Seeing abjection as a site of oppression but also a
potential site of resistance (Kristeva, cultural studies)
Lepers
The sick (mental and physical)
Prostitutes
Minorities
Individuals with mixed racial/ethnic backgrounds
The homosexual/bisexual/transgender
The criminal
The vagabond
The comedian/fool—think of the identity of stand-up
comedians in the US

91. Alter ego—access to the Real
Accepts its fate
The abject is always part of the subject
Brings this side into the light
Operates within “a topology” of catastrophe,
constantly re-invents himself, embraces discord and
the violation of bodily and social boundaries (taboos)
“The abject is perverse because it neither gives up nor
assumes a prohibition, a rule, or a law; but turns them
aside, misleads, corrupts; uses them, takes advantage of
them, the better to deny them” (15)
CASE STUDY: George Carlin—profanity

92. “Yet life is none the less a negation of death. It
condemns it and shuts it out. This reaction is
strongest in man, and horror at death is linked not
only with the annihilation of the individual but also
with the decay that sends the dead flesh back into the
general ferment of life” (55-56).
“…decomposition, the source of an abundant surge of
life, and death” (56).
“The horror we feel at the thought of a corpse is akin
to the feeling we have at human excreta” (57).

93. Orifices are the sewers of the body
Disgust with excrement and other fluids similar to
disgust at aspects of sensuality
Creation of the category of the obscene/offensive
We have to earn our status as human beings through
repression of primal impulses/primal matter
Babies and little kids are obsessed with their excrement
and sometimes even eat it
Parents quickly intervene to teach the child this type of
behavior is unacceptable
Denial of body is at the same time a denial of our own
corporal frailty and mortality

94. Why are we so obsessed with shit?
We produce it—it is our own creation,
contribution to the world
Loss of something—Defecation as divine
creation (Leroux “and I fashioned earth” passage,
132)
But, we have to transform it into something
useful (separating humans from the animal
world towards divine purity); deodorization
(non olet)
Healthy shit is odorless
Separation of bodies from their
odor/odorless=beautiful

95. Privileging of the visual over other senses (Freud—man
loses his connection to Nature when he stands upright)
“Musk is the site of condensation that most clearly
reveals that all smell is tendentially the smell of shit”
(104).
Fear of contagion (sexual—AIDS)
Role of hygiene
Promoted through:
Medical/social prescriptions of hygiene
Canons of beauty (eliminate smell/filth)

96. Andres Serrano, Self-
portrait, 2008

98. Do shit/bodily fluid jokes try to rehabilitate our
connection to the bodily/the earth?
OR
Are they part of the taboo that encircles these
substances with feeling of disgust? Do they reinforce
these feelings in the viewer/listener?

99. Death, Aging and Illness

100. Loss of bodily control/Body as stranger or intruder
Loss of human agency (what makes us human/part of
society?)
Degradation of the body into an object
Uncleanliness/Filth
Traditional: scabs, lesions, putrefaction
New: wrinkles, fat, flab
Transformation into something distasteful, abject and
alien to oneself
Cronenberg’s 1986 film The Fly interpreted by some as:
Metaphor for aging
Metaphor for body/self being ravished by AIDS

102. Life in the margins:
Human/inhuman
Culture/Nature
Subject/object
Sacred/profane
No clear indication of where/when one starts
and the other ends
DISCUSSION: Hand-out on location of corpse

103. “The entire strategy of the contemporary system tends
to ward off the idea of death in a sort of interdiction, it
cannot be named, death belongs now to the idea of
disappearance, absence, distance” (65).
“The civilization of the image will not tolerate blood,
disease, old age, and just as it conceals the sick and the
old, in the same way it undertakes a systematic
disappearance of death, which is named and viewed
only in images linked to homicide, or in general the
catastrophe from which it results. The only acceptable
death is ‘accidental’ death. Natural death no longer
exists” (65).

104. “Death thus dissolves meaning because it is itself
beyond language, beyond signification, and beyond
the symbolic order. As such it always escapes
knowledge and remains for us as the ‘uncanny,’ the
thing ‘beyond our ken’: in Certeau’s words, ‘a wound
on reason’” (207).
Cycle of life does not end at the moment of social
death, but the body continues to have a life and drive
of its own.
Dead coming back to life (legal matters, war atrocities)
Decomposition (chemical process that is not at rest)

105. Pushed out from the circle of the living
Death at home changes to death in hospitals and IC
units
Within closed doors
Corridors for those waiting for death
Handing over the traditional duties of the family
toward the dead to the funeral industry
Aesthetization of death
In art—Pre-Raphaelites
Staging a spectacle focused on the living and hiding the
dead body (embalming, tearing the memory of the
deceased from the actual corpse).

106. Andres Serrano, Pneumonia,
“Morgue” Series

110. CASE STUDY: Michael Lehmann’s Heathers, 1988.
Principal actors: Winona Ryder (Veronica), Christian
Slater (J.D.).
Sentimentalization of death
Purification of the corpse
Preservation of a “dignified” image
Socialized mourning
The funeral industry and spectacles for the living

112. Social practices to deal with death
Social practices to disavow death
Sublimation into passage to a “better world”
Idealization of the deceased
Separation of social image from the actual corpse
Role of religion in the way Western society approaches
death
Dignification (after the fact)
Hypocrisy
Polite conversation
CLASS DISCUSSION: What methods does he employ to
discuss the subject of death? How does it compare to
the norm?

113. Figurations of Death in the
Collective Imaginary

115. Caravaggio, St. Jerome, 1605-1606

127. Playful

131. Compare and contrast current images with images of
the past
How do we configure death today?
What symbolizes the fear of death?
Has death been completely socialized?
Has its figuration transformed? How?
Why do we attempt to socialize death?
What does it say about Western culture in general?

132. Stereotypes

134. Joseph Boskin,
“The Complicity of the Life
and Death of Sambo.”

138. “…a stereotype is tenacious in its hold over rational
thinking. It gains its power by repetitive play,
presented in different guises, so that the image it
projects becomes firmly imbedded in reactive levels of
thought and action” (250).
Misinformation to those not familiar with the cultural
prejudice (passing a stereotype from one generation to
another)
Simplifies the process of perceiving other people—
allows us to take the easy route in dealing with
difference

139. Conveys cultural inferiority not only to the racist group
but also to the group being oppressed (“humor
illusion”)
Social control of the majority
Cites Freud
Humor as joint aggressiveness toward outsiders
Socially-endorsed form of hostility and violence
Uses David Singer to back up his argument
Quote: “The mask of humor’s subtlety and its seemingly
innocuous character are used by the humorist to conceal
his destructive motives and thus to bypass inhibitions in
his audience and himself” (256).

145. Counters the argument that humor can be utilized
subversively against the oppressor (Holocaust, racial
jokes)
Premises:
Maintains victim/oppressor relationship
Victim complicit in his/her own humiliation and
oppression
Makes the situation acceptable to the rest of society
CURRENT-DAY EXAMPLES?

146. “Although the victim’s laughter may be unrestricted
and defiant, it is mostly hidden and defensive in
nature. While crucial as a means of survival and the
maintenance of dignity, defensive humor does not
alter the structure of the image itself. Rather, it
ameliorates the tension between the interacting
parties, thus making the stereotype acceptable to
both and presentable to the larger society. The
illusion continues until one of the two groups either
refuses to perpetuate the process, or changes its own
role so drastically that the relation is terminated”
(261).
CLASS DISCUSSION: Support of argument or
counter-argument with examples.

149. Sebastian, The Little
Mermaid

150. Indians, Peter Pan

154. Larry the Cable Guy

157. Gender

159. Frederic Lord Leighton,
Flaming June, 1895

160. Idealization of relations between people, especially sexual
relations
Romanticism—appeal to the natural and to emotions rather
than empirical evidence (pre-Raphaelites)
Gothic Romanticism—connection between love and death,
obsession with dead maidens (Edgar Allen Poe’s “Annabel
Lee”)
Constructed gender roles and behavior (active/passive
dichotomy)
Aesthetization of violence/upholding status-quo
Female—Innocent maiden, disempowered, cannot obtain an
answer to her question, does not know her own story
Male—Self-assured, moves the plot along,
dominates/determines narrative legitimizes violence against
women, “I knew she was the one,” “all beauty must die”

162. Monty Python’s Life of Brian

165. Religious satire and as a result drew accusations of
blasphemy from some religious groups
Followed a case where a successful blasphemy charge
had been brought against another religious parody
Definition of blasphemy:
 1 a : the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of
reverence for God b : the act of claiming the attributes of
deity
2 : irreverence toward something considered sacred or
inviolable
Thirty-nine local authorities in the United Kingdom
either completely banned the film or imposed an X
(US NC-17) certificate
Some countries, such as Norway, banned its showing

166. Mary Whitehouse and the religious group Festival of
Light launched smear campaign against the film
Many of the authorities banning the film later
admitted they had never actually viewed it
Appearance by John Cleese and Michael Palin on
BBC2 discussion program Friday Night, Saturday
Morning to defend the film against accusations by
Malcolm Muggeridge and Mervyn Stockwood, the
Bishop of Southward
Muggerdige and the Bishop had arrived at the
screening 15 minutes late, missing the part of the film
that establishes Brian as a separate figure from Christ
Their argument was based on the assumption that
Brian and Jesus were the same person/character

168. Individual belief in God vs. God interpreted through
organized religion
Excessive religious belief and mob mentality
Scene where Brian addressed the crowd: “You don’t
need to follow me, you don’t need to follow anybody!
You’ve got to think for yourselves! You’re all
individuals.”
Interpretation of causal incidents as signs from God
Brian’s sandal as containing divine message
“Cast off the shoe!”
Misinterpretation by historical participants that are
carried on for generations
“Blessed are the cheese-makers,” “Blessed are the
Greeks.”

169. Adolescent humor, reliance on slapstick
Serious material framed in a humorous context
Misrepresentation of Church principles which are
beneficial /Encourage people, especially the young,
not to take religion seriously
Heresy:
1 a : adherence to a religious opinion contrary to
church dogma b : denial of a revealed truth by a
baptized member of the Roman Catholic Church c : an
opinion or doctrine contrary to church dogma
2 a : dissent or deviation from a dominant theory,
opinion, or practice b : an opinion, doctrine, or practice
contrary to the truth or to generally accepted beliefs or
standards

171. Theories of Humor

172. Superiority Theory—Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Hobbes
Incongruity Theory—Kant, Schopenhauer, Hazlitt
Relief Theory—Santayana, Spencer, Freud (to a
certain extent)

173. Premises:
 Comedy—Soul experiences a mixture of pain and pleasure
 Malicious intent— “…the malicious man is somehow pleased
at his neighbor’s misfortunes” (11)
 Ridiculous as a form of evil
Argument: The our argument shows that when we laugh at
what is ridiculous in our friends, our pleasure, in mixing
with malice, mixes with pain, for we have agreed that
malice is a pain of the soul, and that laughter is pleasant,
and on these occasions we both feel malice and laugh” (13).
CLASS DISCUSSION: Support of argument or counter-
argument with examples.

174. Premises:
Key term: Sudden glory—passion at hedonistic acts or at
seeing those who are worse off or remembering an absurd
act we committed in the past.
Comparison in which we recommend ourselves “to our own
good opinion, by comparison to another man’s infirmity or
absurdity” (20).
Laughter—distortion of the countenance, grimace.
Argument: “…the passion of laughter is nothing else but sudden
glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminency
in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with
our own formerly” (20).
 CLASS DISCUSSION: Support of argument or counter-argument with
examples.

178. Premises:
Man is “struck with the difference between what things are
and what they ought to be” (65).
Experience of the discontinuous (key term)— “produces a…
jar and discord in the frame” (67).
Connection between the sublime and ridiculous (79)
Argument: “To be struck with incongruity in whatever comes
before us, does not argue great comprehension of perception,
but rather a looseness and flippancy of mind and temper, which
prevents the individual from connecting any two ideas steadily
or consistently together” (81).
CLASS DISCUSSION: Support of argument or counter-
argument with examples.

183. Premises:
Nervous excitement
Engagement of the senses/opening of the imagination
Easing of painful suggestions
Good grotesque as novel beauty
Argument: “So also in humor, the painful suggestions are felt as
such, and need to be overbalanced by agreeable elements…On
the one hand there is the sensuous and merely perceptive
stimulation, the novelty, the movement, the vivacity of the
spectacle. On the other hand, there is the luxury of imaginative
sympathy, the mental assimilation of another congenial
experience, the expansion into another life. The juxtaposition
of these two pleasures produces just that tension and
complication in which the humorous consists” (96-97).
 CLASS DISCUSSION: Support of argument or counter-argument with
examples.

185. Freud and Bergson

187. Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, 1905
Jokes similar to dreams because they partake of the
unconscious
Connection of dissimilar concepts/play of the
imagination/play with language
Condensation, displacement and indirect
representation
Aims:
Deriving pleasure
Hostile joke (serving the purpose of aggressiveness)
Obscene joke (serving the purpose of exposure— “smut”), 97

188. “Aversion to the thing itself had here been transferred
to the discussion of it” (97). Mental masturbation
Purpose:
Bring into prominence sexual facts often repressed by
social etiquette
Satisfy libidinal desire to view sexual organs (a form of
seduction in some ways and also sexual relief)
Structure:
Works with allusions and euphemisms rather than
expressing the straightforward obscenity

190. “Since our individual childhood, and, similarly, since
the childhood of human civilization, hostile impulses
against our fellow men have been subject to the same
restrictions, the same progressive repression, as our
sexual urges” (102).
Brutal hostility replaced by verbal invective
Purpose:
Exploit something ridiculous in the enemy by evading
social restrictions and open sources of pleasure that
have become inaccessible (rebellion against authority,
liberation)

191. Disguised representation of the truth delivered
openly
Exposes our dual character (moral/immoral, high/low
pleasures)
“What these jokes whisper may be said aloud: that the
wishes and desires of men have a right to make
themselves acceptable alongside of exacting and
ruthless morality” (110).
Not always directed at a single person, but at a
collective person (i.e. subject’s own nation and even
self criticism)
Attacking the certainty of our knowledge itself

193. Examines the relationship between the joke and the
teller and the joke and the listener (brings a yield of
pleasure to both the active and the passive
participants)
Humorist (where the process takes place)/listener
(echo)
Why be humorous?
Liberating
Grandeur and elevation
Refusal to be engulfed and made helpless by emotions or
situations

194. “Humor is not resigned; it is rebellious. It signifies not
only the triumph of the ego but also of the pleasure
principle, which is able here to assert itself against the
unkindness of the real circumstances” (163)
When victims transform their suffering into the
humorous
Humorist identifies with all-powerful father figure
Acquires his superiority be reducing other people,
especially the listeners, to children
He/she alone can cope with the situation and exhibit this
higher, dignified attitude

195. Freud’s Triumph of Humor: “Like wit and comic,
humor has in it a liberating element. But it has
also something fine and elevating, which is lacking
in the other two ways of deriving pleasure from
intellectual activity. Obviously, what is fine about
it is the triumph of narcissism, the ego’s victorious
assertion of its own invulnerability. It refuses to
be hurt by the arrows of reality or to be compelled
to suffer. It insists that it is impervious to wounds
dealt by the outside world, in fact, that these are
merely occasions for affording it pleasure.”

198. Humor against oneself to ward off possible suffering
Think of Jewish humor during the Holocaust
Super-ego (parental agency) intervening on the behalf of
the ego
Double function of super-ego (repressive but also
prevents damage from external forces)
Key term: hypercathexis
“A joke is thus the contribution made to the comic by
the unconscious. In just the same way, humor would
be the contribution made to the comic through the
agency of the super-ego” (165).
DISCUSSION: What is the difference between a joke
and humor?

200. Comic spirit only exists within the human and has a
logic of its own
Features:
Absence of feeling (“…the comic demands something like a
momentary anesthesia of the heart. Its appeal is to
intelligence, pure and simple” (I, Chapter I).
Must have social signification (“How often has it been said
that the fuller the theater, the more uncontrolled the
laughter of the audience! On the other hand, how often has
the remark been made that many comic effects are
incapable of translation from one language to another,
because they refer to the customs and ideas of a particular
social group!” (I, Chapter I).

201. Involuntary movement; “physical obstinacy, as a
result, in fact, of rigidity or of momentum” (I, II)—
Causes people to laugh at a man’s fall
Body as beautiful and supple vs. mechanical
inelasticity (absent-minded individual, lack of
balance)
Big deduction: Laughter is a social gesture made to
correct an individual’s behavior through humiliation

202. “Society will therefore be suspicious of all inelasticity of
character, of mind and even of body, because it is the
possible sign of a slumbering activity as well as of an
activity with separatist tendencies, that inclines to
swerve from the common centre round which society
gravitates: in short, because it is the sign of an
eccentricity…It is confronted with something that
makes it uneasy, but only as a symptom—scarcely a
threat, at the very most a gesture. A gesture, therefore,
will be its reply” (I, II).
Inspires fear, restrains, intimidates and thus, maintains
the social contact and the status quo

203. Turns human into object/thing—automaton
“We laugh every time a person gives us the impression of
being a thing” (I, V)—Dehumanization of person;
mechanization of human body
Promotes rigid control of one’s body/represses a person’s
natural drives
“Laughter is, above all, a corrective. Being intended to
humiliate, it must make a painful impression on the person
against whom it is directed. By laughter, society avenges
itself for the liberties taken with it. It would fail in its
object if it bore the stamp or sympathy or kindness” (II, V).

205. How does Chaplin criticize the regimentation and
increasing mechanization of society?
What are the dangers of mechanization?
How are these portrayed in the factory scene?
How does Modern Times challenge Bergson’s theory
of the comic?

206. American Psycho

207. American Psycho (2000)—directed by Mary Harron
and starring Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman.
Based on Bret Easton’s novel of the same title. Easton
was one of the screenwriters for the film.
Controversy with MPAA who wanted to give it an NC-
17 rating. Film had to be re-cut to attain an R rating.
Criticism of the greedy, hedonistic consumer culture
of corporate America in the 1980s.
Incorporates elements of horror film to engage its
audience.
Opposition of cleanliness/beauty/health and
dirt/pollution/bodily fluids.

208. Foils expectations of traditional American audiences
Inconclusive ending, ambiguity as to whether plot is
real or imagined, no redemption of main character.
“The movie takes the back way out and leaves us
unsatisfied. I won't say exactly what happens, but
Bateman's reality perception is left in question, and
there's no redemption or conclusion of any kind. I like
ambiguous and challenging endings, but a movie of this
kind needs to leave us with something. Otherwise
there's no point in making the thing at all.”—Jeffrey
Anderson, CombustibleCelluloid.com

209. “American Psycho is one of those films that makes
you laugh uncomfortably throughout and you just
walk away feeling disgusted. The flick is definitely an
underrated masterpiece.”—Kevin McCarthy, BDK
Reviews
“At once a sharp satire and an earnest study in the
deadly consequences of moral vacancy.” –Ella Taylor,
L.A. Weekly
“It’s smart, frightening and funny.” –Chris Gore, Film
Threat

212. Human/animal, Super-ego/Id—Aggression and Evolution:
Freud’s cynic as social prototype/Relation of fantasy to reality
Responsibility/accountability (individual, collective, corporate,
social/government)
Social criticism—society of the image, consumer culture,
greed, lifestyle, corporate America
Dehumanization, desensitization to violence (self-
reflection as violent film)
Problematic masculinity:
Regime of beauty—violence to self, out of touch with
self even though ultra-invested in self (time applying
beauty products, exercising)
Usually associated with the feminine
 Body as a stranger, but differently than in The Fly or The
Metamorphosis
 Connection between obsessive care of the self and violence

213. How does the film employ dark humor to promote
criticism?
How is sharp contrast/juxtaposition utilized?
What types of bodies does it present?
How do sexuality and desire shape the film as a
product, including its marketing campaign?
Aesthetization of violence? Portrayal of serial killer?
Bale’s good looks? Empathy with Bateman as
opposed to victims?
How does it play with viewer’s expectations?
Is it as subversive as it seems or is this only an effect
at a surface level?

214. Violence, Trauma and Social Disorder

215. Suicide, 1926

216. Pimps of Death, 1919

217. Seven Cardinal Sins, 1933

218. War Sketches--Skull

227. Is Dark Humor Ethical?
Humor and Ethics
Part I

228. Three main objections:
Laughter is involuntary—frees the subject of
responsibility
Triviality—makes the subject matter appear frivolous
The funny is merely aesthetic—does not have moral
weight or an agenda
Goes back to Plato—evil element in laughter
Phthonic laughter (key term)—comes from Greek
word Phthonos, which means “malicious envy” and
connotes both the involvement of something evil, and
the ambiguity between identification and alienating
that characterizes jealousy

229. Margaret Trudeau goes to visit the hockey team.
When she emerges she complains that she has been
gang-raped. Wishful thinking.
If you laugh, you are accepting the stereotype or the
assumptions of the joke
“To laugh at the joke marks you as a sexist” (239).
By listening, you are endorsing and promoting the
proliferation of a particular negative attitude
Phthonic joke requires a victim
“Phthonic jokes are a species of jokes that rest not
merely on beliefs, actual or hypothetical, but on
attitudes…Attitudes are beliefs that one cannot
hypothetically adopt” (241)

230. Exclusion—community identification based on detriment
of others (butt of the joke), which is a distortion of reality
Emotional self-deception—denial or wrong assessment of
reality (laughing at yourself)
What makes it unethical?
“The ‘unethical’ in both cases involves a wrong
assessment of reality” (244).
Reference to Bergson—laughter is incompatible with
emotion.
There is a sort of cruelty in laughter that stems from its
ability to create a position in which the subject disengages
with reality

233. de Sousa takes jokes as assertions rather than
statements that are not meant to be taken completely
serious
Category of “the joke” and effect on listener
Specific role of the comedian/fool in society
Allowed to transgress within context of the comic
Engenders different audience expectations than someone in
another profession
Social function of stereotypes
Transposition from one group to other (Polish joke becomes
blonde joke)
Projection
Inspires a need in listener to examine the speaker’s position
The joke tells you more about the speaker and his/her
shortcomings, fears, prejudices than about what he/she is
laughing at

237. Humor and Ethics
Part II

238. 1. Humor is insincere
2. Humor is idle
3. Humor is irresponsible
4. Humor is hedonistic
5. Humor diminishes self-control
6. Humor is hostile
7. Humor fosters anarchy
8. Humor is foolish

242. Performative aspect of humor
Relationship between speaker and audience
Stand-up comedy
COUNTERARGUMENT: Not all humor involves
pretending and insincerity
Old friends laughing about a past event
Pretending is part of our society and not necessarily
objectionable
Role of actors

243. Protestant Ethic
Every action must have a quantifiable purpose and
product
CASE STUDY: Churchill’s announcement that
Mussolini had declared war on Great Britain
“Today, the Italians have announced that they are joining
the war on the side of the Germans. I think that’s only fair—
we had to take them last time.”
Helped relieve British public’s anxieties about the war

244. Disengagement in humor
Play—suspension of moral concern
CASE STUDIES:
Humor as psychologically healthy way to respond to
setbacks
Holocaust
Humor as a way to publicly point out that a situation
must be corrected
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s criticism of the
government

245. Soul/body split
Denunciation of earthly pleasures in different societies
and religions
Fostering of sexual licentiousness
COUNTERARGUMENT:
Amusement and laughter tend to diminish sexual
passion (purely physical response)
Most humor is unrelated to sex and even if it is about
sex, it does not promote a relation of indifference toward
sexual licentiousness
Morality tales: Jokes about cheating spouses

246. Loss of muscle tone and coordination
Kant—involuntary reaction in the bowels
Mind/body split
COUNTERARGUMENT:
Promotes rational thinking by reducing negative
emotions like fear or anger
Medical humor to reduce the stress of the patient

247. Negative view of laughter as inferior mental activity
COUNTERARGUMENT:
Humor as a social lubricant
Ice-breakers
Joking as a way to deal with situations that produce anxiety
and discomfort

248. Association of laughter with vice
Comedians mocking political and religious leaders
and institutions
COUNTERARGUMENT:
Lack of humor in moments of social revolt
French Revolution
American Civil Rights Movement
Need to occasionally challenge the status quo
Cabaret performers during the Third Reich
Comedians during the Bush administration, especially
concerning issues of torture

249. Association of folly with laughter and wisdom with
sadness
Ecclesiastis 7:3-4: “Sorrow is better than laughter, for by
sadness of countenance the heart is made glad. The
heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the
heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”
COUNTERARGUMENT:
Meditative nature of works of comedy
Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator and Modern Times

250. Irresponsibility:
Practical disengagement--laugh something off instead of
taking action
Total cynic
Blocking Compassion:
Displacing action and insulting those who are suffering,
thus increasing their suffering (cruel humor)
Promoting Prejudice:
Cognitive disengagement—play frame that removes
statement or image from moral scrutiny
Converting the objectionable into the aesthetic

251. Can humor increase our engagement in an issue that
would otherwise fall through the cracks? Examples?
Can purposed insensitivity or callousness call attention
to something that needs to be corrected or a general
attitude that is morally suspect? Examples?
Can jokes based on stereotypes promote identification
and community building? Does a joke based on a
stereotype lead to the mistreatment of the group
targeted? Examples?