Comedy has always helped ease tensions in society. It helps mold a society and their beliefs. “It’s an opportunity for society to explore, affirm, deny, and ultimately to change it structure and its values” (Mintz 73). Humor helps society cope with absurdity of situations, but dark humor goes further, helping us “expose the hypocrisy of the righteous, which is essential to any sensible society” (Collins 61). Although dark humor may seem crude and heartless, it helps us as a society recognize our values, affirming or swaying our opinions by make us step out of our comfort zone to tackle the difficult issues. Dark humor like all other humor is just a group of words put together, how then does it have such power over a society?
Mary Douglass says, “the joke form rarely lies in the utterance alone, but … can be identified in the total social situation” (Mintz 73). Take Lenny Bruce’s Nine dirty words, “ass, balls, cocksucker, cunt, fuck, motherfucker, piss, shit, tits.” This words are used often in today’s language but Bruce used them when they were forbidden. Society had deemed these words unexpectable. But through Bruce insistence, society was forced to think of the true meanings of these words. They began to realize that it wasn’t simply the utterance of the words that were offensive but the person or context in which the words were used. Lenny didn’t stop with curse words, his intent was to “rip the covers off and expose the naked truth about religious hypocrisy, political corruption, race relations, sex, drug use, and homosexuality—all topics that other comedians of his day never dared to touch or address as openly, brazenly, and authentically” (Collins 65).
Lenny Bruce like all other comedians are “spokespeople… a part of the public ritual of standup comedy, he/she serves as a shaman, leading us in celebration of a community of shared cultural, of homogenous understanding and expectation” (74). Although we as society may not always deem a joke expectable, the comedians influence us to voice our opinions. Take Louis C.K. for example, his routines are highly controversial but it gets people taking about the problem in our society. His routines make us question our beliefs and lead to express ourselves. Dark Humor may not have a rite, “the experience of public joking, shared laughter, and celebration of agreement on what deserves ridicule and affirmation foster community and furthers a sense of mutual support for common belief and behavior” (Mintz 73). In fact, dark humor doesn’t usually cause agreements, but it does foster a sense of community.
Dark humor causes disagreements because nothing is sacred when it comes to free expression. Nothing—not religion, patriotism, or even family—is beyond critique, criticism, or comic contempt” (Collins 63). But as Mintz says, “It’s an opportunity for society to explore, affirm, deny, and ultimately to change it structure and its values” (Mintz 73).