by Ben Spatz
There's so much "humor" out there that's based on demeaning people and insulting people and just generally being cruel. It's supposedly hard to make racist jokes in mainstream contexts, but obviously misogynistic humor is still out there, not to mention the endless parade of anti-fat jokes... And then when you say that these things are offensive, people call you PC and feign concern for the First Amendment. As if humor and politics were living in two parallel worlds that never came in contact. As if the personal were totally divorced from the political. As if you could laugh at a sexist joke without being sexist yourself.
That's why it makes me so happy to see humor that isn't offensive. There is a whole branch of humor which is just about things being *absurd*. Like the first fifteen minutes of _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_, before it's gets dark, or these two guys I used to know named Che Easson and Steven Haynes. It's just about being RIDICULOUS! Things happen and it's just so absurd that it's delightful and you just have to laugh. This isn't just more PC, it's also much, much funnier.