Comedy and Social Justice

 Humor can create a sense of intimacy for the subjects that we have deemed taboo. We see it with how we approach sex, mental health, and social justice. The conversations necessary to promote and educate ourselves on these topics have been deemed uncomfortable and inappropriate to the point that many of us would prefer to ignore the issues altogether. However, humor allows us to bridge the gap between, as Gurba put it, "the intersection of horror and humor." It is not the only way to discuss such topics, of course, but it is a meaningful way to approach them for those who would otherwise avoid them because of their serious nature. 

When it comes to joking about serious matters, the line is drawn with experience. A person who has never been sexually assaulted can only go so far as to joke about something like sexual assault until it becomes offensive because it  begins to isolate them from their audience and make light of a situation they don't know intimately. For example, my roommate and I may joke about something like our fear of walking alone as women, because that is something we have to think about constantly, but we wouldn't extend our humor to a level of sexual assault because it extends beyond our experiences. Neither of these experiences is a funny situation, but it can ease the discomfort that stems from reality.