This again? “It’s a joke” is, with one exception we’ll get to, no defence against making a racist gag (or a sexist gag or a homophobic gag or whatever). Some loudmouth drops a supposed comic banger that hangs around offensive assumptions about a minority. The world objects. “Hey, it’s a joke!” Or maybe “It’s just a joke!” Nobody is disputing that, you massive genius. The argument is about the presumptions inherent in the joke.
Anyway, you know what this is about. Few would have guessed that, in the final week of the US presidential-election campaign, one Tony Hinchcliffe, a modestly successful Ohioan comic, would challenge to be the main character. Could he end up doing to Donald Trump what James Comey and the emails did to Hillary Clinton in 2016? (Probably not, but you’ll need a more grown-up column to answer that question.)
Last weekend Hinchcliffe delivered a gag at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally that ended by comparing Puerto Rico to a “floating island of garbage”. Not surprisingly, the commentariat went bananas. At time of writing, the news cycle has reached a bumbling response from Joe Biden that allowed the interpretation he viewed Trump’s supporters as “garbage”. The White House later clarified he was actually referencing the “hateful rhetoric”.
Before we got to that blowback, defenders of Hinchcliffe had already dropped much “It’s a joke” chaff about the combat zone. There was also some “Does nobody have a sense of humour any more?” That’s a slightly different point. Only the purest of soul has gone through life without once smiling at a gag that hinged on an offensive presupposition. It is, just about, possible to separate technique from motivation. Bernard Manning, the late Mancunian stand-up, had immaculate timing and delivery. Many of his jokes remain unambiguously racist. “It’s a joke, you c**t,” he told the Guardian in 2003 after failing to win the interviewer over to a gag that involved giving a person of colour a “crack” (he didn’t say “person of colour”).
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Matt Gaetz, the controversial congressman for Florida, didn’t brandish such colourful language when defending Hinchcliffe, but he did make use of the caps lock. “To everyone mad at @TonyHinchcliffe IT WAS A JOKE!” he posted on Monday. I KNOW. EVERYONE KNOWS. SO WHAT?
A similar kerfuffle blew up when Ryan Girdusky, a conservative commentator, in heated debate on CNN with Mehdi Hasan, a combative British journalist of Indian descent, quipped: “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off.” You can guess how Girdusky, plainly referencing the Israeli attacks on Hizbullah using exploding pagers, responded to a subsequent ban from the cable network. “Apparently you can’t go on CNN if you make a joke,” he said. “I’m glad America gets to see what CNN stands for.” Yeah, that’s the problem. CNN is anti-joke.
It shouldn’t need to be explained that rendering an idea through a gag does not automatically inoculate the teller from any responsibility for implied beliefs. “It’s a joke” does count as reasonable defence when the teller has been employing sarcasm, but a growing confusion about the meaning of that term should put the listener on alert. Earlier in this apparently endless campaign, JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, got in trouble when old remarks emerged in which he referred to prominent Democrats as “a bunch of childless cat ladies”. He wasn’t having it. “The media wants to get offended about a sarcastic remark I made before I even ran for the United States Senate,” he hit back.
Hang on, here. Were the remarks really sarcastic? Our friends at Merriam-Webster dictionary (a US publication, crucially) are here to clarify. “Sarcasm refers to the use of words that mean the opposite of what you really want to say,” the relevant entry states. So, for example, when I write, “Yeah, that’s the problem. CNN is anti-joke,” I mean to say, “Don’t be ridiculous. CNN is not anti-joke.” It seems unlikely Vance’s meaning was that these leading opponents were oft-married dog fanciers with scores of children. You could just about call the line a joke (based on exaggeration for effect), but it certainly isn’t sarcasm. Either way the implication is clear.
As confusion is everywhere about, let me clarify what I am not saying. I am not saying we should be protected from opinions that challenge our closely held beliefs. I am certainly not saying that humour should never risk offence. I am not saying that Hinchcliffe or Girdusky should be banished to Cancellation Island (no longer an issue with Manning). I am merely saying that if you try to back away from an implied belief by saying “It’s a joke” then, unless you were being sarcastic, you’re a sociopath who belongs in prison. Sorry, too much. I was only joking.
