Unit Question: Can humor be used to break down cultural barriers or does it reinforce them?
As the "funny" unit commenced, our teacher (Ms. Kimmie) asked us to stand on an imaginary line with an end determining that humor can be used to break down cultural barriers, and the other with determining that humor rather reinforces cultural barriers. Not giving the theory too much thought, I placed myself towards the end that showed that humor could be used to break down the cultural barriers, not entirely, but well towards it-thinking about how we tease my best friend, about her religion and she does not mind or get offended. Throughout the unit, my perspective of the theory did not seem to alter as we focused mainly on how to make people laugh, and what it is that makes them laugh.
As a class, we spoke about how people find jokes, stand up comedies, acts, and behaviors funny if they can relate to it For example, I would find a scene funny if they spoke about the heat in Bangladesh sarcastically, because I've lived here my entire life and I still do, and I can relate myself to it. Even though I haven't lived in Canada or been there before, I would still find a scene about the extremely cold weather in Canada funny, because my friend lives there and he complains about it to me whenever we speak. My friend however, would find the scene funnier, because he can definitely relate to it better than I can.
Continuing on with our unit, we spoke about religious and racist jokes as well. Many of the world's population have a sense of humor where they find racist and religious jokes funny. In order to meet the demand of that particular audience, stand-up comedians, film writers, directors, authors has put in racist and religious jokes within their stand-up comedy, scripts, movies, books, and many more. An example of this would the video: "The Muslims Are Coming!"
Throughout the entire unit of "funny" while we discussing the topic of religious and racist jokes, we did an activity where we watched different videos and determined as a group if that particular video containing religious/racist jokes would be considered funny or not and our reasons for our answers. Often times, we thought that the punch line was taken far away from the limit line and we drew a conclusion cracking religious and racist jokes were funny but only to a certain extent. Till then, my opinion about how religious/ racist jokes can be used to break down cultural barriers had not changed.
However, after watching the video "The Muslims are Coming!" my opinion has changed drastically. Being a muslim, and coming from a slightly religious muslim family, I would consider the video to be utterly disrespectful, offensive, and too stereotypical. The fact the muslims themselves are creating jokes about their own religion provoke the non-muslim population to crack the same jokes, and create similar jokes about Islam, which do not show their respect for the religion. Islam, just like all other religions, Islam a way of life with rules and regulations that the followers follow in order to live a peaceful life. Often times, the media broadcasts portray how muslims are the reason for a terrorist attack, which is fundamentally a conclusion that is drawn by investigators enquiring into the topic due to their failure in investigating properly and concluding the case to a simple close. This sort of a conclusion is made as frequently as there is an attack, and it seemingly creates a barrier between religions, races, and cultures.
The reason that the "muslims" are creating such humor, is to "combat Islamophobia" as they have claimed, however they are literally restating what the media has previously stated, and reminding the non muslims of the attacks or acts that were apparently caused or done by muslims which is nothing but reinforcing the cultural barriers. If they wanted to combat these barriers using humor, they could have done so but using the components; contradiction and paradox and stated that what the media is exhibiting to the world is not true. Starting from one community or country would work as one spark starts a fire, and sparking America to change their views would have a great impact on the world. They used the components slapstick comedy and hyperbole, however they have used it to prove the media right, and to reinforce the barriers.
The reason that the "muslims" are creating such humor, is to "combat Islamophobia" as they have claimed, however they are literally restating what the media has previously stated, and reminding the non muslims of the attacks or acts that were apparently caused or done by muslims which is nothing but reinforcing the cultural barriers. If they wanted to combat these barriers using humor, they could have done so but using the components; contradiction and paradox and stated that what the media is exhibiting to the world is not true. Starting from one community or country would work as one spark starts a fire, and sparking America to change their views would have a great impact on the world. They used the components slapstick comedy and hyperbole, however they have used it to prove the media right, and to reinforce the barriers.
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