Joke Capital vs. Punching Up/Punching Down: Accounting for the Ethical Relation between Joker and Target
-
Steven Gimbel
Gettysburg University, USA;
and
Thomas Wilk
Widener University, USA;
Abstract
The currently dominant view concerning humor ethics is punching up/punching down. According to this view, members of one community with less social capital are allowed to make jokes at the expense of another with more social capital as a means of achieving social justice, while those in a community with more social capital are forbidden from making jokes about those with less. The latter is considered an act of bullying, which further entrenches pre-existing social injustice. While there is value in the moral intuitions that underlay this view, it falls prey to several problems. A new approach, the joke capital approach, is introduced which has the virtue of accounting for the cases in which punching up/punching down is effective but also is capable of handling the problematic cases.
About the authors
Gettysburg University, USA;
Widener University, USA;
References
Benko, Steven A., ed. 2020. Ethics in Comedy: Essays on Crossing the Line. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.Search in Google Scholar
Carroll, Noël. 2020. “I’m Only Kidding: On Racist and Ethnic Jokes.” Southern Journal of Philosophy 58(4): 534 – 46.10.1111/sjp.12391Search in Google Scholar
Chow, Andrew. 2021. “Breaking Down the Controversy Around Dave Chappelle's Netflix Special The Closer.” Time. 12 Oct. https://time.com/6105951/dave-chappelle-netflix-controversy/.Search in Google Scholar
Cohen, Ted. 1999. Jokes: Philosophical Thoughts on Joking Matters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226112329.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 1989. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.” University of Chicago Legal Forum 140: 139 – 67.Search in Google Scholar
Gimbel, Steven. 2017. Isn’t that Clever: A Philosophy of Humor and Comedy. New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781315112633Search in Google Scholar
Krefting, Rebecca. 2014. All Joking Aside: American Humor and Its Discontents. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.10.1353/book.33137Search in Google Scholar
McGraw, A. Peter, and Caleb Warren. 2010. “Benign Violations: Making Immoral Behavior Funny.” Psychological Science 21(8): 1141 – 49.10.1177/0956797610376073Search in Google Scholar
Pérez, Raúl. 2016. “Racist Humor: Then and Now.” Sociology Compass 10(10): 928 – 38. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12411.10.1111/soc4.12411Search in Google Scholar
Provine, Robert R. 2000. Laughter: A Scientific Investigation. New York: Viking Adult.Search in Google Scholar
Raskin, Victor, and Salvatore Attardo. 1994. “Non-literalness and Non-bona Fide in Language: An Approach to Formal and Computational Treatments of Humor.” Pragmatics and Cognition 2(1): 31 – 69.10.1075/pc.2.1.02rasSearch in Google Scholar
Scruton, Roger. 1987. “Laughter.” In The Philosophy of Laughter and Humor, edited by John Morreall. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.Search in Google Scholar
Walker, Zoe. 2021. “Upsetting the Alphabet People.” In Dave Chappelle and Philosophy: When Keeping It Wrong Gets Real, edited by Mark Ralkowski, 99 – 109. Chicago: Open Universe.Search in Google Scholar
Wilk, Thomas, and Steven Gimbel. 2024. In on the Joke: The Ethics of Humor and Comedy. Berlin: DeGruyer.10.1515/9783110759853Search in Google Scholar
© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Titlepages
- Table of Contents
- Articles
- Democritus, The Laughing Philosopher
- The Contemptuous Laughter of Democritus and Nietzsche
- A Joke: On the Plurality of Worlds and Ostrichist
- Joke Capital vs. Punching Up/Punching Down: Accounting for the Ethical Relation between Joker and Target
- Humanistic Ethics of Humor: The Problematics of Punching Up and Kicking Down
- “You Must Be Joking!”: Theory, Religion, and The Domestication of the Ludic
- Humor in Chinese Traditions of Thought, Part One: Systematic Reflections in View of Ancient Confucian and Daoist Applications of Humor
- Discussion: Short Article for Further Debate
- Discussion: Short Article for Further Debate Edited by John Marmysz
- The Shared Presupposition Norm of Joking: A Philosophical Exploration
- “I Finally Got the Joke”
- Do Joke-Telling Norms Apply to Laughtivism?
- “I’m Only Human”: A Self-Referential Sense of Humor and Meaningful Living
- Philosophical Satire and Criticism
- Philosophical Satire and Criticism Edited by Steven Gimbel
- Recaptioning Cartoons from Historical Turkish Humor Magazines as Feminist Media Activism: The Case of Boşboğaz
- Humor in Philosophy Education
- Humor in Philosophy Education Edited by Christine A. James
- How Can Philosophy Improve Your Sense of Humor?
- Symposium
- Symposium Edited by Steven Gimbel Dustin Peone. Making Philosophy Laugh: Humor, Irony, and Folly in Philosophical Thought. Cascade Books, 2023. pp. 158. Critics
- In Search of a Lost Philosophical Humor
- The Moment of Laughter
- On Making Philosophy Laugh
- “Where the enemy is mighty, one must be clever”: Peone, Vico, and Guareschi on Power in Humor
- Author’s Response
- Author’s Response
- Humor Resartus
- Book Reviews
- Book Reviews Edited by Lydia Amir With Pierre Destrée (Ancient and Medieval Philosophy) and John Marmysz (Modern and Contemporary Philosophy)
- Call for Papers, Book Reviews, Guidelines
- Call for Papers, Book Reviews, Guidelines
- Call for Papers
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Titlepages
- Table of Contents
- Articles
- Democritus, The Laughing Philosopher
- The Contemptuous Laughter of Democritus and Nietzsche
- A Joke: On the Plurality of Worlds and Ostrichist
- Joke Capital vs. Punching Up/Punching Down: Accounting for the Ethical Relation between Joker and Target
- Humanistic Ethics of Humor: The Problematics of Punching Up and Kicking Down
- “You Must Be Joking!”: Theory, Religion, and The Domestication of the Ludic
- Humor in Chinese Traditions of Thought, Part One: Systematic Reflections in View of Ancient Confucian and Daoist Applications of Humor
- Discussion: Short Article for Further Debate
- Discussion: Short Article for Further Debate Edited by John Marmysz
- The Shared Presupposition Norm of Joking: A Philosophical Exploration
- “I Finally Got the Joke”
- Do Joke-Telling Norms Apply to Laughtivism?
- “I’m Only Human”: A Self-Referential Sense of Humor and Meaningful Living
- Philosophical Satire and Criticism
- Philosophical Satire and Criticism Edited by Steven Gimbel
- Recaptioning Cartoons from Historical Turkish Humor Magazines as Feminist Media Activism: The Case of Boşboğaz
- Humor in Philosophy Education
- Humor in Philosophy Education Edited by Christine A. James
- How Can Philosophy Improve Your Sense of Humor?
- Symposium
- Symposium Edited by Steven Gimbel Dustin Peone. Making Philosophy Laugh: Humor, Irony, and Folly in Philosophical Thought. Cascade Books, 2023. pp. 158. Critics
- In Search of a Lost Philosophical Humor
- The Moment of Laughter
- On Making Philosophy Laugh
- “Where the enemy is mighty, one must be clever”: Peone, Vico, and Guareschi on Power in Humor
- Author’s Response
- Author’s Response
- Humor Resartus
- Book Reviews
- Book Reviews Edited by Lydia Amir With Pierre Destrée (Ancient and Medieval Philosophy) and John Marmysz (Modern and Contemporary Philosophy)
- Call for Papers, Book Reviews, Guidelines
- Call for Papers, Book Reviews, Guidelines
- Call for Papers
