First of all, now that I have your attention, I want to make clear this is not an attack on National Public Radio.
But it was an NPR broadcast that sparked my thoughts about the power humor has to trivialize evil. How comedy can move the focus from the heinous to the humorous, and in the process blunt the evil at the core of the issue.
These ideas came about on Saturday as I was listening to Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! WWDTM), NPR's "oddly informative news quiz." (Which, BTW, I generally find very entertaining.)
The topic: the ACORN sting, which documented the willingness of ACORN staff members to give advice on running a child prostitution brothel and other illegal activities. One staffer even volunteered to help smuggle the under-age girls into the U.S. from Mexico.
What I find particularly appalling is that none of the ACORN workers in the videos seemed the least bit bothered by helping enslave a dozen 12 to 15 year old girls as prostitutes.
Unfortunately, the host and panel of WWDTM don't seem too appalled either. Here is the opening to the topic. (To hear this portion of the broadcast CLICK HERE and select "Panel II: ACORN And Fashion Week" in the right column.)
Host Peter Sagal: Some more questions from the week's news. Roy, the community organization, ACORN,...got in real trouble this week when video was released showing them giving advice on how to get housing and hide income to two people who said they were what?
Panelist Roy Blount, Jr.: What really bothers me about ACORN is they don't seem to know what a pimp and a HO look like.
Sagal: That's right, a pimp and a prostitute. Now listen, if you're ACORN and you know the entire Vast Right Wing Conspiracy is out to get you figure you'd give your staff a warning. Look guys, if two pasty white kids come in looking like superfly and his number one girl, and they keep aiming their purses at you and asking you to speak up a bit, ixnay on the money laundering, okay?
The discussion then turned to ideas on what new training ACORN staff should get and a new multi-level pimp alert.
The story was not about ACORN staff encouraging child prostitution, but about the amateurish (and therefore comical) look of the investigators. Any hint of the impropriety--to say nothing of condemnation, outrage, or revulsion--about the ACORN workers' actions was totally absent.
That, to me, is a time when humorists need to recognize their power to trivialize evil--to refocus attention away from the heinous--and therefore refrain from using the topic to get laughs.
What do you, especially those who are humorists, think? When should humorists take a pass on a topic, even if some issues could get laughs?
Please let me know by commenting below.
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