Contact Bruce
About
PWP
Links
Photo Credits:-
Wrong-Right
(geralt, Pixabay)
Fun Solo
(johnhain,
Pixabay)
Fun Duo
(johnhain, Pixabay)
|
Excessive Political Correctness 
In my article Political
Correctness (PC), the case was made that PC is double-edged.
It can be helpful
or not, changing society for the better or entrenching elitist systems.
This article continues to examine this duality of PC and focuses on how
excessive PC can inadvertently be hilarious or can kill
comedy.
Hilarious PC
- A
UK recruiter was stunned when her job advert for 'reliable'
and 'hard-working'
applicants was rejected by the job centre as it could be
offensive to
unreliable and lazy people.
- A
USA school renamed its Easter eggs 'spring spheres' to avoid
causing offence to people who did not celebrate Easter.
- Some
USA schools now have a 'holiday tree' at Christmas, rather
than
a Christmas tree.
- A
UK council has banned the term 'brainstorming' – and replaced
it with 'thought
showers', as local lawmakers thought the former term may offend
epileptics.
- Short
people should rather be called 'vertically challenged'.
- Health
and Safety is often an area where hysterical PC happens, like banning
children's sack races. Maybe one day
we will be advised not to breathe - as air pollution could kill us?
- On actors not being allowed to act: Can I Play That? by SNL.
How PC Kills Comedy
(1) My notes from the legendary John Cleese
in discussion with Bill Maher (here,
posted
11 January 2017, accessed 23 June 2017; and here,
posted 25 November 2014, accessed 28 September 2017):-
- Comedy
is about things not going right, people not behaving appropriately or
intelligently. [So, PC, which is meant to make things perfect, kills
comedy.]
- Political correctness (PC) is a good idea where
it shields meanness to those who can’t look after themselves
very well. PC starts
as a half-decent idea, and then it goes completely wrong,
it’s taken to an
absurd level.
- Any criticism of any individual or group can be
labelled cruel.
However, the whole point of comedy is that all comedy is critical. If
you can’t
criticise particular people or groups, then humour is gone, and along
with it
any sense of proportion. Then you’re living in 1984
[i.e. a dystopian novel about a dictatorial superstate that watches
everything you do, is extremely controlling, persecutes individualism
and
independent thinking].
- He argues for less PC. Offended people can choose
to
defend themselves.
- Cleese does not at
all subscribe to the idea that you have to be protected from any kind
of
uncomfortable emotion. Cleese cites Robin Skynner: “If people
can't control
their own emotions, then they
have to start trying to control
other people's behaviour.”
- When you’re round supersensitive people,
you can’t relax and be spontaneous because you have no idea
what will upset
them next.
- Cleese quotes an ex-BBC chairman who said there may
be people you
wish to offend.
- However, if you make jokes about people who are
going to kill
you (e.g. Muslims), there’s a tendency to hold back a little.
(2) Mel
Brooks, one of Hollywood's funniest film-makers, has told the BBC
political
correctness is "the death of comedy". He
said Blazing Saddles, his Western spoof about a black
sheriff in a racist town, could never be made today. "It's OK not to
hurt
the feelings of various tribes and groups," he said. "However, it's
not good for comedy. "Comedy has to walk a thin line, take risks. It's
the
lecherous little elf whispering in the king's ear, telling the truth
about
human behaviour." (BBC,
posted and accessed 21 September 2017)
(3) "Imagine
if the most brilliant comedians in history were
working today. They’d never stop apologizing. Charlie Chaplin
would have to
apologize to all the homeless people he belittled with his Little Tramp
character. W.C. Fields and Dean Martin would both have to apologize to
alcoholics. The Marx brothers would have to apologize to Italians,
mutes and
uptight British ladies. Comedy has been around for a long, long time,
and there
have been a lot of impolite, unpleasant and jaw-droppingly politically
incorrect jokes." (Gilbert Gottfried)
(4) "Most
comedy would go out of the window, if political
correctness really took hold. There'd be absolutely nothing that you
could make
fun of. And that would never do, would it?" (June Whitfield in a Carry On documentary)
|
Also see:-
Political
Correctness [PC1]
Blame or
Empowerment? [PC2]
Skirting Around
[PC3]
Dress Codes [PC4]
|
PC5 - Excessive
Political Correctness
