Lewd, Crude...and Funny?

Here we go again! Joan Rivers compared her living arrangements with her daughter to the women held captive in a Cleveland basement. Uproar. Apology demanded, but Rivers isn’t caving. “I’m a comedienne,” she says.

This kind of joke should not be a complete surprise to those who know her work. Most of her TV appearances are mild dilutions of her stage shows. The material is pretty crude.

But this is her product. This is what she serves, and with the statement, “I’m a comedieene,” she has hit the ball firmly back to our side of the court. If she were to offer an apology, what would it accomplish? Would it change her shtick?  I think we know the answer.

You place an order in a Chinese restaurant. The waiter may not speak much English, but usually he knows when to say, “Spicy!” So if you order that dish, it’s too late to complain. Maybe you think a restaurant serving that kin d of food should stop serving the dish in question or even go out of business. It won’t, because there are enough people who like “spicy.”

Sometimes, the chef puts too much spice in that dish, even for those of us who may like his cooking. But if we frequent the place, we’ll probably suck it up and return on another day.

In the sport of boxing, the competitors are often warned about low blows, in which punches are thrown to the crotch. Most of the time, it’s an accident, but sometimes, it’s deliberate. In such a case, the referee can deduct a point from the offender’s score, and the victim gets a full five minutes to recover (which victims rarely take). And then the match continues. Those things don’t usually end a boxer’s career.

Many psychologists – and lay people – have tried to analyze humor. We’ve heard “Tragedy plus time equals funny,” or, courtesy of Woody Allen, “If it bends, it’s funny; if it breaks, it’s not funny.” The shrinks will tell you that surprise is necessary to humor, but the surprise is not complete: there has to be something in our soul that knew the punch line all along; the joke simply brings it to consciousness. If it’s a total surprise, well, it’s not funny, it’s simply shock. But some of us develop a taste for it, or at least expect it.

In Joan’s case, “I’m a comedienne” is an honest response to her critics. In the Chinese restaurant, if Chef Wong overdoes it with the MSG and a diner complains, is he going to change what’s on the menu? Probably not, especially if he knows the tables are still filled each night.

Are we going to deduct a point from Joan and let the match continue? Joan is leaving that decision up to us, which seems entirely appropriate to me.

Send Out the Clowns

 The flap over the now infamous Missouri State Fair rodeo clown’s spoof of President Obama is not just a simple tempest in a teapot.  It only adds to my wonderment at the nature of humor. For years, I have asked myself why some who make one quip perceived as racist have to quit their jobs, weep and gnash their teeth in eternal banishment while others get away with it, even make a way-more-than-comfortable living at it.

For decades, Don Rickles packed auditoriums in Vegas. Bill Maher would seem to be his logical successor, with shtick full of comments about blacks, Asians and others that are clearly racist -- but most of us laugh anyway. On the female side, there are Joan Rivers and perhaps her successor, Sarah Silverman, whose main goal seems to be to shock us.

Many comedians work “dirty” these days, with shtick full of f-words. Personally, I think Robin Williams is a stitch without the injection of such language, but he does it in concerts. Maybe that’s just me. When I was young I laughed very hard at Red Skelton, from whose lips a dirty word never issued on stage or screen.

In one of those famous Woody Allen movies whose titles all run together in my head, Alan Alda, playing a TV star, is seen telling a group of up-and-comers, “If it bends, it’s funny; if it breaks, it’s not funny!” Sometimes it’s about the material. The joke just doesn’t work. Or the comedian can’t make it work.

Is it about conscious – or even unconscious – intention? The Missouri rodeo clown could have been just plain mean. But were those who made fun of Bush 43, Reagan, Nixon, Clinton or Carter any less mean? Does Obama “deserve” it any less than they? I return to Bill Maher, who makes jokes about Obama’s race on practically every show.

Maybe it’s about the comedian internally laughing along with us, bringing to the surface attitudes many of feel we have to suppress or are afraid to recognize in ourselves. Prejudices, if you look at them from a distance, are actually fuuny, largely because they make no sense. But there’s a chord that has to resonate someplace in us to bring out the laugh.

As you can see, I haven’t begun to figure this out, but I’m not sure the myriad of minds out there better than my own have figured it out either. Don’t even think about applying concepts like fairness or consistency to this problem. You will fail miserably, as I have.

Mr. de Niro, So Shut Up Already

Actors are supposed to be sensitive people. They have to be, in order to create characters. So it’s truly amazing that some of the best have tin ears.

Robert de Niro got into trouble for asking an Obama fundraising audience if the country was “ready for another white first lady,” a reference to the wives of the Republican presidential hopefuls. Not surprisingly, the remark hasn’t struck everyone as funny.

Mr. de Niro has since apologized -- not good enough for Newt Gingrich, who is demanding that President Obama apologize, too. It was a Democratic fundraiser, but the Republican candidates just got one big free political gift. It’s a wonder Gingrich doesn’t slip and say thank you.

It’s not the first time de Niro has said something questionable. At a Golden Globes dinner, he joked that some members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association were absent because they had been deported, along with the waiters.

When will they ever learn this simple rule: Determine first what your role is, and then think long and hard before you switch hats.

Critics will say, why can Bill Maher et al get away with material like that, and others can’t? Well, because he’s Bill Maher, and that’s what you expect – what you want – from him when you choose to watch him. Don Rickles’ acts were full of ethnic slurs, but he was a successful comedian for decades – still is. As for Joan Rivers, well, don’t ask. It’s not fair, but it’s life.

Successful comedians know what their audiences want, and they deliver – and what they deliver is usually funny. And funny is a function not only of the delivery, but the deliverer, and the appropriateness for particular audiences.

In addition, successful comedians know when the punch line has been delivered, and they move on to the next joke. Rush Limbaugh was being satirical when he made fun of Sandra Fluke, but it took him three days to do it – and it wasn’t funny.

So Mr. de Niro (or is it Rupert Pupkin), we are talking to you. You are not the King of Comedy. Please leave standup to the professionals.