It is impossible to distinguish the type of comedy that would be interesting for a person without analyzing one’s reaction to humor on various topics. Comedians choose to use such a strategy to build a relationship with the audience from the show’s beginning. They identify the audience at the outset to satisfy people with the comedy by joking about appropriate topics that would not insult anyone. However, sometimes comedians might choose the wrong humor, offending the audience’s culture or using stereotypes that seem inappropriate for watchers.
Primarily, many comedians base their jokes on ridiculous stereotypes that seem utterly absurd to most people. Still, comics might deliver their idea in the wrong way offending the audience (Jiang et al., 2019). For instance, the humorist might include a joke about women being wholly unambitious and incapable of running their business, focusing on the irrational stereotype. It is evident that now women can defend themselves and sometimes seem even more hard-working and goal-oriented. However, this stereotype might still hurt the female audience, considering it is utterly inappropriate. Overall, unprofessional comedians use stereotypes in their humor rather than spending time to create unique and indeed funny jokes. As a result, such offensive stereotypical depictions might carry a harmful social weight to the audience.
As a matter of fact, it seems inappropriate for humorists to implement stereotypical ideas in their jokes since they might carry a hurtful notion to the audience. One can never guess what stereotypes the audience agrees with and associates with themselves. Furthermore, as a central aim of comedies is to lift people’s moods, it seems unreasonable to include the beliefs that might spoil the audience’s overall experience from the show (Jiang et al., 2019). Therefore, it is fair to conclude that stereotype-based humor is unnecessary, and comics should use different ideas to make their puns.
However, the same statement applies to people who appreciate stereotype-based jokes, especially offensive to others. It seems unfair to laugh at jokes that might considerably harm other people who associate themselves with the humored idea or notion (Jiang et al., 2019). In addition, considering that the modern world is more about omitting selfish motives and supporting others, it is evident that such behavior should not be tolerated on comedy shows. In other words, since everyone tends to visit comedies to relax and release stress, the contrary activities should not be provoked by stereotype-based humor and its further appreciation from some parts of the audience.
Furthermore, comics should not include culture-based jokes in comedy shows due to the same reasons as stereotype-based puns. In other words, it is evident that every culture percepts humor differently, and therefore, people of some societies might not welcome humor related to their beliefs or them as believers (Jiang et al., 2019). For instance, some communities admire an excellent laugh like Germans and British, though “Chinese do not think that humor is a desirable personality trait” (Jiang et al., 2019). To be more exact, if I heard a joke about my culture, I would be hurt and annoyed, even considering the possible minority status or past oppression of my community. I believe that it is disrespectful to humor or sarcastically point out views of any culture and not just my own. As a result, to avert any harmful contexts in humor, comedians should not use cultural ideas in their jokes as they may be inappropriate and offensive to some communities.
In conclusion, humor is a specific notion that every person percepts differently. Therefore, comedians should carefully consider the ideas they implement in their jokes not to insult the audience or spoil their overall experience from the show. In other words, such topics as culture and stereotypes seem dangerous to use in a comedy as people tend to interpret their viewpoints and beliefs in different ways.
Reference
Jiang, T., Li, H., & Hou, Y. (2019). Cultural Differences in Humor Perception, Usage, and Implications. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00123