There is no doubt that comedy has changed throughout the years, but there has always been one thing that always manages to wriggle it’s way in at some point; cruelty. May it be Ricky Gervais ‘attacking’ movie stars at the Golden Globes, or South Park explicitly targeting minorities, comedy and cruelty seem to go hand in hand. But, does comedy only work with cruelty? Is there a way for comedy to work without making someone, or a group of people, the butt of the joke?
First of all, we should determine what cruelty is. A dictionary definition of cruelty is “the quality or condition of being cruel” or
“something, such as a cruel act or remark, that causes pain or suffering”. When you think of cruelty, you’re normal reaction would be to think towards cruelty to animals, or crimes against humanity. How does that definition of cruelty compare to cruelty in comedy? Cruelty in comedy may also be referred to as “dark humour”. Dark humour is described as being “humour that is viewed as dark, morbid, cruel, offensive to some, and or graphic in nature and is yet, still found funny. It submerges into unpleasant endeavours and emerges with a funny story found humorous to the masses”. However, the dictionary definition of cruelty still fits well with comedy; if you simply add to the amusement of others.
The butt of the joke i.e. “the person who comes out ridiculed when a story is told” can help to determine the cruelty of a joke. The use of the word “ridiculed” a certain amount of humiliation to the recipient of the joke. Cruelty? Sometimes it is dependent on who the joke is on. Cruelty appeals to the masses when it attacks the small percentage of people at the topic of our financial ladder, politicians, celebrities, etc. These aren’t necessarily considered cruel, but more likely the deliverer of the joke would say it is justified, compared to a joke that would have a minority as the butt of the joke, many would say too much. It may be that the joke is only considered ‘cruel’ if its target is a subject or party that aren’t worthy of being ridiculed.
But this can be a strong way of forming bonds with people. An easy way to find a common ground with people is to have a relatable inferior group, a group that you can comfortably make jokes about. This can be also to reinforce the position you think you have in society.
There are comedies that are particularly geared towards having cruelty in them, may it be to the core characters, to the other characters on the show, or simply what those characters say that may shock of offend. A show like the American sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia contains characters that are quite frantically horrible, but the hilarity within the show comes from the way they treat others. You may even be upset to see people treated like this in reality. The British show The Inbetweeners demonstrates all three of the techniques perfectly. As well as being cruel to other characters on occasions, the majority of the story involves the four lead roles suffering from cruel and unfortunate events during their late teen years; the sort of events that if it occurred to yourself, you wouldn’t be laughing.
Satire, “the use of humour…to expose and criticise people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues”, is a genre within comedy that thrives upon cruelty. Predominantly, satire targets those people who hold a high-social status, politicians and celebrities, and therefore uses comedy to bring them down a notch. For this type of comedy to work effectively, cruelty is a necessity. Shows like the BBC's Have I Got News for You and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver are prime modern examples of shows that ridicule those in power. John Oliver’s show famously trying to affect Presidential candidate, Donald Trump’s, image by embarrassing him with the revealing of his actual last name “Drumpf” which trended all over social media. The cruelty in these types of shows aren’t used to necessarily shock an audience, but are used to usually push forward a political agenda, mocking people considered in power.
Sometimes, these programs of cruelty cause such influence to the public that they have to be removed from air. That Was the Week That Was is renowned as one of the most cutting edge satirical comedies to have ever been released, but was stripped from the schedule before the 1964 general election due to it being considered that “the program's material could compromise its [the BBC’s] impartiality” and could affect the outcome of the upcoming election with its cruel comedy towards politics.
American and British comedies have shared and differing qualities that make them either successful or failures in their own rights. However, when it comes to cruelty, both countries will have shows that have and don’t have cruelty. From researching through different styles of comedies and sitcoms, British comedy seems to use a lot more cruelty in its comedy than America, but, some of America’s most successful comedies do rely on being purely cruel, either to themselves or to others. There seem to be countless British shows that have natural cruelty in there, The Office, Phoenix Nights, Miranda are all cruel comedies, but all differ in their style. American ones seem to be coming out a lot more recently with The League and My Name is Earl, along with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia which I have previously mentioned, being the main cruel comedies that spring to mind.
A lot of American comedy appears to be written for the masses, family friendly comedy that appears to be harmless. Shows such as The Big Bang Theory and Friends have an apparent harmlessness to them, where the jokes are more about quick wit in reaction to others comments. However, even shows like this contain elements of cruelty.
As discussed earlier, the butt of a joke is the person, or persons, at the end of a joke. This would suggest almost every joke would have to involve someone suffering. Andy Borowitz discusses in a response to Eve Gerber that there is a “strong vein of cruelty running through a lot of comedy”. Even within the comedies mention above, there are elements of comedy. The Big Bang Theory may not directly be offensive towards any minority, but the jokes it makes about ‘nerds’ and stereotyping their activities could be perceived as offensive to people who actually live like this. Within the context of this comedy, the cruelty is largely aimed towards the four scientists the show is based around, how they are very unsuccessful in love.
It could also be considered cruel that making fun of one of the show’s leading characters, Sheldon Cooper, for having either autism or Asperger’s syndrome (it is never confirmed in the show). Being a real condition that people suffer with makes the jokes they create about Sheldon having awkward social interactions and hating germs possibly very hurtful for anyone who acts like this.
Even well-known comedians such as Peter Kay and Michael McIntyre, “neither of whom are controversial”, have moments throughout their shows that have cruelty. “There is a level of cruelty most people will put up with” and McIntyre and Kay sit on the side that means they are not considered cruel or controversial.
Comedy and jokes without cruelty does exist, but it seems hard for comedy to thrive without its little brother, cruelty. The cruelty does not necessarily have to be straight up mean to a certain person or minority, but even if the cruelty is oneself, as most stand-up comedians would do, a small amount of nastiness is present.