It’s Not Funny! When a Joke is Not a Joke
I’m publishing this series of articles to share and discuss my ruminations on coping with a troubled and messy world. You can “follow” me to never miss an article.
Anything — I repeat, ANYTHING — having to do with violence is not funny. It’s not acceptable, period! This couldn’t be truer in today’s politically charged environment.
Thus, several months after the January 6th insurrection, Kevin McCarthy joked at a campaign event that if Republicans win back the House, “it will hard not to hit Pelosi with the speaker’s gavel when she is forced to relinquish it…”[i] Is it thereby truly surprising that Speaker Pelosi’s husband, Paul, was badly injured when he was hit by a hammer that was intended for Nancy? As several commentators have noted, it’s only time before a Politician is actually killed. While shocking, it’s not unexpected, which only adds to the shock value.
If the jokes before a violent event are awful, then those following are just as bad, if not worse. Thus, Donald Trump, Jr. joked, “Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready.”
While both Democrats and Republicans decried the violence, Democrats far outnumbered their counterparts in condemning it. What’s truly alarming is that the attack on Paul Pelosi adds to the already heighted fears of Political violence[ii].
And, Elon Musk used his new platform to spread bizarre Conspiracy Theories about the attack, which of course involved LGBTQ’s[iii].
Conspiracy Theories by Republicans that Democrats staged the attack on purpose are so low as to defy all Reason. The worst by far is that Mr. Pelosi actually invited the perpetrator in for purposes of having Sex, which of course went wrong. Just when I can’t believe we’ve sunk so low, we sink even lower. There’s no bottom.
There are of course countless other types of so-called jokes that are not funny at all. One of the worst are Hoaxes by students announcing on Social Media that they intend to commit a Mass Shooting at their school. When confronted, it’s of course just a Joke. They didn’t mean any actual harm. School officials rightly don’t see it that way. Indeed, not only do they generally dismiss a student for a specified period of time, but it’s ground for permanent expulsion.
There’s not much that’s funny in or about today’s world.
[i] Shira Stein, Joe Garofoli, and Sara Libby, “Violet rhetoric set stage for attack,” San Francisco Chronicle, Monday, October 31, 2022, PP A1 and A7.
[ii] Catie Edmondson, “Pelosi Attack Highlights Increasing Fears pf Violence Incited by Politics,” The New York Times, Sunday, October 30, 2022, P 20.
[iii] Demian Bulwa, “Musk tweet promotes baseless theory about attack,” San Francisco Chronicle, Monday, October 31, 2022, P A7.
Ian I. Mitroff is credited as being one of the principal founders of the modern field of Crisis Management. He has a BS, MS, and a PhD in Engineering and the Philosophy of Social Systems Science from UC Berkeley. He Is Professor Emeritus from the Marshall School of Business and the Annenberg School of Communication at USC. Currently, he is a Senior Research Affiliate in the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, UC Berkeley. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Management. He has published 41 books. His latest is: The Socially Responsible Organization: Lessons from Covid, Springer, New York, 2022.
Photo by Nadine Shaabana on Unsplash
