On Making a Rape PSA

A Guest Post by Annie Laferriere

When I find myself annoyed with or upset with something, my general reaction is to throw jokes at it. Not being the most aggressive of people, I find it a cathartic way to state my opinion. The babble going on a few months before the election, spurred by the rape comments made by Todd Akin and Richard Murdoch made me laugh a lot.  Then I got annoyed that such stupid statements were getting so much air time. Then I laughed a little more.  And then I texted ten of my comedienne/actress girlfriends and said, "Hey I have a really funny idea for a sketch about rape.  Do you want in?"  Luckily almost all of them trust my comedic sensibilities and two days later we had our cast of five beautiful funny chicks.

Rape is such a sensitive topic and I worried about offending people. Not really just any people. But survivors. That thought horrified me, and we tried to approach it in such a way that wouldn't be offensive but would make people laugh, but also think about sexual violence and the reality that we live in a world where rape is way too common. 

The PSA was scripted, but a lot of improv ended up in the final cut. I'm so happy with the way it turned out. I'm proud of what it says.  I hope people enjoy the satire but understand the statement.

Annie is an LA-based stand up and improv comedienne. See more of her stuff at http://3rdwheelcomedy.com/.

More Humor Research: Aggression and Joking

Photo by JoF

German scholars have published a study in the Journal of Pragmatics stating that humor plays a significant role in establishing social hierarchy.

This study basically reiterates what feminist humor scholars have been saying all along: The power dynamics of gender dictate and guide the use of humor. From Ben Leach's great piece in the Telegraph:

The theory explains why until recently it has been extremely rare for women to tell jokes in front of men, according to Helga Kotthoff of the Frieburg University of Education.

She said: "Those 'on top' are freer to make others laugh. They are also freer to be more aggressive and a lot of what is funny is making jokes at someone else's expense.

"Displaying humour means taking control of the situation from those higher up the hierarchy and this is risky for people of lower status, which before the 1960s meant women rarely made other people laugh - they couldn't afford to.

"Comedy and satire are based on aggressiveness and not being nice," she said. "Until the 1960s it was seen as unladylike to be funny. But even now women tend to prefer telling jokes at their own expense and men tend to prefer telling jokes at other people's expense."

Throw other factors such as age and race into the mix, and you've got yourself a recipe for who and how humor is used among different groups to define social identity politics. These relationships aren't static- they shift and evolve. Just as joking can assert dominance and oppress others, it can renegotiate dynamics and empower marginalized groups.

What I like about this study is that it brings attention to the importance of power in comedy. Too often "joking" is quickly dismissed as trivial and irrelevant to real world issues. Studies like these help people take comedy's impact more seriously.

Science Discovers Flirting

(Photo courtesy permanentlyscatterbrained)

Psychology researchers have determined a new correlation between being attractive and funny.

Previous studies have shown that being funny increases one's attractiveness, but this study shows that it can go the other way, as well.

The general conclusion of the study is that humor is used as a relationship initiator. In other words, the academy has discovered flirting.

There was only one real reference to gender at play. They acknowledge that cracking a joke can be risky- if the joke flops, you're left with awkwardness and discomfort. They suggest that men may have less to lose than women in a botched attempt to hit on someone (evolutionarily speaking), so men are more likely to crack a joke first.

The authors also argue that Humor Studies has been neglected in the field of social psychology. Yes! Absolutely. The lack of study in this area has given rise to too many mediocre studies leading the pack (my personal favorite).