As I was reading The Greek Way by, Edith Hamilton, I began to think about the purpose of comedy in literature - this can be applied to anything really; movies, stand-up comedy, music, TV shows, etc.
Hamilton dedicates a chapter to Aristophanes, the Ancient Greek, who wrote comedic plays between 427 BC – 386 BC. Regarding the Old Comedy, Hamilton writes,
Comedy often takes unsavory and/or taboo topics in society and makes light of them. This led me to ask the following questions: What is the purpose of comedy and are there limits to what should be discussed in a comedic way? Does comedy force us to stop taking ourselves too seriously, while simultaneously creating dialogue on what is currently happening in a society? In today’s culture, it’s easy to get “canceled” for not saying the right thing - how might this affect comedic voices who are trying to get us to assess our own ridiculousness?
In my opinion, we live in a society that is now overly sensitive. People are nervous to say or do certain things because they are paranoid of unknowingly offending someone. And now, even saying that a society is too sensitive, one can get accused of “gaslighting.” As a person who’s done a lot of research on gaslighting, no… no it’s not always gaslighting. Stop gatekeeping the term - it actually diminishes its meaning for when its ACTUALLY happening. Once people begin to filter themselves, I think we actually miss out on some truly innovative voices because they feel suppressed. Once you have a society in which creative types feel as if they can no longer express themselves because they aren’t “politically correct” according what society currently deems as such, or because they deliberately don’t want to be “politically correctly” for whatever reason, then what is actually happening? What voices are we missing out on that could be monumental for this time period?
I think this can be applied outside of the genre of comedy; there were many Russian authors in the Soviet Union who were smuggling their manuscripts (for example, Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak) out of the country in order to get their works published because there was no freedom of speech. Look at these books now, they are revered and the authors are praised for being brave.
Consider authors like Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Shakespeare and Nancy Mitford - they comedically wrote about the society around them. Now, some of these authors are “problematic” because they don’t fit what is deemed to be appropriate by today’s standards. Which makes no sense to me honestly, how can we expect Charles Dickens to have prophetic foresight? “Oh gee, those people in 2021 aren’t going to like what I say about XYZ because, I’m able to see the future and should have known better.” Clearly, we are still reading these authors’ works now because there is something relevant to discuss, whether it makes us uncomfortable or not. And if something does make us uncomfortable, it should stimulate healthy dialogue, not be eliminated.
To bring this back around full circle, I think being able to make fun of oneself and society is important. It keeps us from being stiff, stuffy, and boring. Do you have people in your life who just don’t know how to take a joke? Yea, they usually aren’t super fun to be around. Perhaps we need to take a leaf out of Aristophanes’s book and just poke fun at ourselves. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t ever times where someone crosses a line, address those situations as needed, but overall, let’s not take ourselves too seriously.
Like my bookish content? Follow me on Instagram for more!
Post a Comment