The BIG QUESTION with:
“Are there any subjects you would not make jokes about?"
relate to all sorts of wicked topics - topics that are
awkward, difficult, painful, scary, embarrassing,
risky, offensive, appalling, sexist, religious, even
racism.
Like sex, it's not what you do but how you do
it. What higher truth are imparting? If it’s just a
blunt grope for an involuntary guffaw, your
audience will tire.
Apu, the Indian immigrant convenience store
worker from the comedy series The Simpsons is, on
the face of it, a racist stereotype. Though his
audience adores him, Apu has attributes that could
be used to describe a similar person in a racist
manner. He works all day and night, he is thrifty, he
is penny-pinching, he has been shot countless
times... These attributes could be misinterpreted by
the innocent as racial stereotypes of immigrant
convenience store workers.
It is only Apu's undying optimism and love for
his family that endear him to the viewing audience.
There is no restriction on comedy in
Without those qualities, Apu would be largely
terms of subject matter.
unlikeable and a figure of dark ridicule. But holding
People are capable of laughing at anything.
up those initial qualities for humorous play has
Because laughter is an involuntary act, a
created one of the worlds most popular comic
physiological response to stimuli that simulate
characters.
danger, laughter and the comedy that can provoke it
‘Political correctness’, and the restrictions it