I was talking to my girl about a number of things the other day. And, I asked her to join my simple resolution: not to laugh at shit that aint funny.
If there was one word to summarize the past 2-3 years of youth culture it would be "awkward." Calling oneself awkward, trying to avoid awkward people, situations and places, secretly visiting blogs about awkward circumstances - fucking everything is awkward to people. And, in avoiding this dreaded "awkward situation" people will do dumb shit like laugh at racist/misogynist/classist/etc. or just plain unfunny jokes just because they want to not make the situation uncomfortable.
My question is, why not? Because, when you uncomfortable chuckle to a person's inappropriate joke you signal a couple of things to them and others. One, and probably most primary, you become complicit in the joke. Now, at this point, it doesn't really matter if you didn't tell the joke, you are just as guilty. Secondly, you tell the joke-teller that their joke was both appropriate and/or funny. So, that means they probably think that it was a great success and will continue to inappropriate and/or not funny. If this person is your friend, why are you gonna let them make a fool out of themselves? If this person is not your friend, why do you care if you make them feel uncomfortable? They should feel uncomfortable.
Now, as a small caveat. I tell bad jokes a lot, all the time really. Sometimes, I'm the only one laughing because they are really just that bad. But, if my jokes just don't seem funny - that's okay - usually they amuse the fuck out of me. I don't expect people to laugh all the time, but I still tell my jokes because I know they'll brighten up my day. Rarely, I even tell some inappropriate jokes, which makes me feel guilty after and when no one laughs it only shows me how bad I am at making decisions sometimes. Good, thank you for checking me.
So, please, make some awkward situations people. Stop laughing at bad jokes. Ask pointed questions after inappropriate jokes (ie. So, I'm confused, did you mean [insert explicit but detached summary]?). Stop letting people get away with thinking they're funny when they're not and even worse that making light of others differences or some other form of inappropriate joke is okay, because it's not. Thank you.
If there was one word to summarize the past 2-3 years of youth culture it would be "awkward." Calling oneself awkward, trying to avoid awkward people, situations and places, secretly visiting blogs about awkward circumstances - fucking everything is awkward to people. And, in avoiding this dreaded "awkward situation" people will do dumb shit like laugh at racist/misogynist/classist/etc. or just plain unfunny jokes just because they want to not make the situation uncomfortable.
My question is, why not? Because, when you uncomfortable chuckle to a person's inappropriate joke you signal a couple of things to them and others. One, and probably most primary, you become complicit in the joke. Now, at this point, it doesn't really matter if you didn't tell the joke, you are just as guilty. Secondly, you tell the joke-teller that their joke was both appropriate and/or funny. So, that means they probably think that it was a great success and will continue to inappropriate and/or not funny. If this person is your friend, why are you gonna let them make a fool out of themselves? If this person is not your friend, why do you care if you make them feel uncomfortable? They should feel uncomfortable.
Now, as a small caveat. I tell bad jokes a lot, all the time really. Sometimes, I'm the only one laughing because they are really just that bad. But, if my jokes just don't seem funny - that's okay - usually they amuse the fuck out of me. I don't expect people to laugh all the time, but I still tell my jokes because I know they'll brighten up my day. Rarely, I even tell some inappropriate jokes, which makes me feel guilty after and when no one laughs it only shows me how bad I am at making decisions sometimes. Good, thank you for checking me.
So, please, make some awkward situations people. Stop laughing at bad jokes. Ask pointed questions after inappropriate jokes (ie. So, I'm confused, did you mean [insert explicit but detached summary]?). Stop letting people get away with thinking they're funny when they're not and even worse that making light of others differences or some other form of inappropriate joke is okay, because it's not. Thank you.
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