I also want to mention (and full disclosure, I’m a big Daily Show/Colbert Report fan) that more of our generation get our news from these sarcasm-drenched late night programs than from actual news sources, and there’s also never been more enthusiasm about voting among young people since the late 60’s. If these shows just made us too jaded and cynical to do anything, why is there higher voter turnout among the Daily Show’s demographic than ever before? And it’s not just Obamamania, though that does play a role - young voter turnout has been rising steadily since 2004.

On the other hand, I do recognize that irony and sarcasm are potent weapons when you want to shame someone into following the status quo. But the thing is, that’s actually a very tribal way of bringing people into line. The civilized way is through brute force.

I certainly agree with you that too much irony distances us from our real feelings. The thing is, it protects you from judgment - or at least it feels like it does. If you don’t really like anything, you’ll never be criticized for liking something “wrong.” And the more people sarcastically criticize each other, the more we all use sarcasm as protective wrapping around our real feelings, and the more distanced we get.

The good news is, popular humor seems to be moving away from irony and towards sheer absurdism. The quirky twee aesthetic seems to be on the rise, and in a way, that aesthetic values wonder, of a sort. It emphasizes a genuine appreciation of the little things in life we generally overlook. Maybe that’ll save us from irony.

I will fully admit that I have fallen into many of the traps that you have outlined here. I have always held a special place in my heart for ironic commentary, feeling that it encourages resistance to abuses of power — and that it serves as the “last bastion” of creative tools to champion social awareness. (What a dismal view of the future that implies - last bastion!) My sentiments in favor of irony, by and large, still exist as a holdover from my pre-rewilding days, and I suspect now that they have served me extremely poorly in my efforts to rewild. After reading your words I plan to spend some time in the near future carefully examining the end result of ironic humor, as empirically experienced.

Has my sense of irony truly acted as an accomplice to civilization, authorizing and instructing me to “tuck away” horrific problems after getting in a good chuckle or moving through an indignant outburst? Does irony, in the end, merely layer on another image of civilization’s mirrored human ego in an unending hall of reflections?

Food for thought. Let’s see how well I can keep my focus on resistance as long as I remain living in the oh-so-agreeable (does that mean servile?) city of Seattle.

I’ve never been able to explain this to people. I end up just wishing they would listen to Lou Reed or the Talking Heads or something because that does a better job.

Great thoughts, Scout.

Personally, I find it hard to say how humor affects resistance/motivation. I think in a way it can make bad ideas look especially stupid, and brings them to proactive light in a way that everybody can relate to. In another sense, like you said, humor that is used to justify or nullify abuse or regrettable behavior can have a negative effect. I can see both these realms when I experience humor, sometimes it brings things to light in a good way, sometimes it fosters a cynical defeatist attitude, either way it can be funny, but I think people should be mindful of the larger effect they have on culture. Especially when cynicism and apathy prevents positive change.

Which is completely not the point of the post, I’m just sayin’.

But I think Scout groks why, for instance, members of certain activist groups don’t find certain jokes funny. For instance, sexist jokes. Feminists in particular get pilloried for not finding sexist jokes funny, and women who don’t want the F label suck up to men by laughing, but in the end, people find sexist jokes funny because they think they can’t eradicate sexism, and that’s pretty sad.

I gave away my TV and haven’t watched TV in 6 months. They think I am crazy. Well it is a small step in the right direction in the road to drop kicking civilization into the rubbish dump that it is.

Also I wonder why Larry David hasn’t tried to make a major political satire type film or does he think what’s the point….the world is just too absurd….so I will stick to the absurd.

Nice one. Thanks

I was a teenager when Family Guy first came on, and I remember some of my stupid friends laughing at what a racist this guy must be. When I finally watched an episode, I said to myself, “Oh, it’s satire!”