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It’s Okay to Laugh at Fat Bastard: Ridicule, Satire, and Immoralism

  • Lukas J. Myers

    University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA;

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Published/Copyright: September 18, 2023
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The Philosophy of Humor Yearbook
From the journal The Philosophy of Humor Yearbook Volume 4 Issue 1

Abstract

Comic immoralism is the view that sometimes funny things are funny due to their having immoral properties of some sort. Immoralism has many proponents and detractors. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, I clarify the scope and content of comic immoralism as a general thesis in the philosophy of humor. I will argue that the debate about immoralism has unduly excluded certain categories of humor from inclusion, and that the language which immoralists sometimes use can be misleading. Second, I argue for my own version of immoralism, which I call ridicule immoralism. Ridicule immoralism holds that sometimes things are funny due to their being ridiculous, and that things are often ridiculous due to being morally flawed. It follows from this that a version of comic immoralism is true.

Keywords: comic immoralism; satire; ridicule; philosophy of humor

About the author

Lukas J. Myers

University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA;

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Published Online: 2023-09-18
Published in Print: 2023-09-18

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Titlepages
  2. Titlepages
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Articles
  5. Vico’s Theory of Humor and Laughter
  6. Laughter as Natural Piety: John Dewey, Humor, and the Religious
  7. Understanding Humor: Four Conceptual Approaches to the Elusive Subject
  8. Reality Is a Joke
  9. What Makes a Joke Bad: Enthymemes and the Pragmatics of Humor
  10. It’s Okay to Laugh at Fat Bastard: Ridicule, Satire, and Immoralism
  11. Oppression, Subversive Humor, and Unstable Politics
  12. What's the Deal with Sophists? Critical Thought and Humor in Ancient Philosophy and Contemporary Comedy
  13. Discussion: Article for Further Debate
  14. Discussion: Article for Further Debate   Edited by John Marmysz
  15. What’s So Funny About Golf?
  16. Artificial Intelligence, Phenomenology, and The Molyneux Problem
  17. A Kernel of Truth: Outlining an Epistemology of Jokes
  18. Philosophical Satire and Criticism
  19. Philosophical Satire and Criticism Edited by Steven Gimbel
  20. How to Read Wittgenstein as x: An Exercise in Selective Interpretation
  21. Humor in Philosophy Education
  22. Humor in Philosophy Education Edited by Christine A. James
  23. Quantifying Laughter in International Research
  24. Symposium
  25. Symposium     Edited by Steven Gimbel   Robert R. Clewis, Foreword by Noël Carroll, Kant’s Humorous Writings: An Illustrated Guide. Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. Pp. xxiv + 256   Critics
  26. Prosecuting the Case against Clewis
  27. All in Good Taste
  28. Is Kant Seriously Funny?
  29. Clewis on Kant’s Humor
  30. Author’s Response
  31. Author's Response
  32. Humor and the Arts: Taking Kant Seriously
  33. Book Reviews
  34. Book Reviews Edited by Lydia Amir With Pierre Destrée (Ancient and Medieval Philosophy) and John Marmysz (Modern and Contemporary Philosophy)
  35.    
  36. Call for Papers, Book Reviews, Guidelines
  37. Call for Papers, Book Reviews, Guidelines
  38.    
https://doi.org/10.1515/phhumyb-2023-0006
Keywords for this article
comic immoralism; satire; ridicule; philosophy of humor

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Titlepages
  2. Titlepages
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Articles
  5. Vico’s Theory of Humor and Laughter
  6. Laughter as Natural Piety: John Dewey, Humor, and the Religious
  7. Understanding Humor: Four Conceptual Approaches to the Elusive Subject
  8. Reality Is a Joke
  9. What Makes a Joke Bad: Enthymemes and the Pragmatics of Humor
  10. It’s Okay to Laugh at Fat Bastard: Ridicule, Satire, and Immoralism
  11. Oppression, Subversive Humor, and Unstable Politics
  12. What's the Deal with Sophists? Critical Thought and Humor in Ancient Philosophy and Contemporary Comedy
  13. Discussion: Article for Further Debate
  14. Discussion: Article for Further Debate   Edited by John Marmysz
  15. What’s So Funny About Golf?
  16. Artificial Intelligence, Phenomenology, and The Molyneux Problem
  17. A Kernel of Truth: Outlining an Epistemology of Jokes
  18. Philosophical Satire and Criticism
  19. Philosophical Satire and Criticism Edited by Steven Gimbel
  20. How to Read Wittgenstein as x: An Exercise in Selective Interpretation
  21. Humor in Philosophy Education
  22. Humor in Philosophy Education Edited by Christine A. James
  23. Quantifying Laughter in International Research
  24. Symposium
  25. Symposium     Edited by Steven Gimbel   Robert R. Clewis, Foreword by Noël Carroll, Kant’s Humorous Writings: An Illustrated Guide. Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. Pp. xxiv + 256   Critics
  26. Prosecuting the Case against Clewis
  27. All in Good Taste
  28. Is Kant Seriously Funny?
  29. Clewis on Kant’s Humor
  30. Author’s Response
  31. Author's Response
  32. Humor and the Arts: Taking Kant Seriously
  33. Book Reviews
  34. Book Reviews Edited by Lydia Amir With Pierre Destrée (Ancient and Medieval Philosophy) and John Marmysz (Modern and Contemporary Philosophy)
  35.    
  36. Call for Papers, Book Reviews, Guidelines
  37. Call for Papers, Book Reviews, Guidelines
  38.    
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