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Apparently there was recently a Saturday Night Live sketch about Islamic State that went viral, provoking comment on whether it was appropriate to make fun of IS. Actual IS videos are withheld from the news because they are deliberate provocations and atrocities which IS wants broadcast, the argument goes, so why give them air time with frivolity?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-31735136
Well, is freedom to mock our greatest weapon?
Is humor a useful tool against violence and despotism? What are its limits?
I can remember vividly seeing comedian and director Mel Brooks in an interview, on being asked why he poked fun at Hitler, saying very firmly "Because I can."
But he was annoyed at Roberto Benigni's comedy “Life Is Beautiful” which took something deeply abyssal, life in the death camp barracks, and tried to make light of it.
From an interview with "Der Spiegel" about his film and the play and the film of "The Producers":
Can we turn Islamic State's power against it with humor?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-31735136
The online joke is on Islamic State
By Mukul Devichand Series Producer, BBC Trending
...
In the US, a sketch by Saturday Night Live (in which Dakota Johnson, star of the Fifty Shades of Grey movie, says "it's only Isis, Dad," before driving off with militants) got 1.6 million views.
It stirred up a pointed backlash on Twitter.
In Egypt, several ordinary internet users posted IS humour videos.
...
The Egyptian response to these videos echoes the American backlash: many are calling them "stupid," insensitive to the families of recent Egyptian victims of IS, and worried that all they do is glorify the violent militants.
In other words, the "atrocity exhibitions as clickbait" argument again.
...
"Freedom to mock is our greatest weapon," is the familiar response, and indeed this is what Saturday Night Live's Taran Killam tweeted in response to their sketch's critics in the US.
Well, is freedom to mock our greatest weapon?
Is humor a useful tool against violence and despotism? What are its limits?
I can remember vividly seeing comedian and director Mel Brooks in an interview, on being asked why he poked fun at Hitler, saying very firmly "Because I can."
But he was annoyed at Roberto Benigni's comedy “Life Is Beautiful” which took something deeply abyssal, life in the death camp barracks, and tried to make light of it.
From an interview with "Der Spiegel" about his film and the play and the film of "The Producers":
SPIEGEL: So there are limits to humor?
Brooks: Definitely. In 1974, I produced the western parody "Blazing Saddles," in which the word “nigger” was used constantly. But I would never have thought of the idea of showing how a black was lynched. It’s only funny when he escapes getting sent to the gallows. You can laugh at Hitler because you can cut him down to normal size.
...
SPIEGEL: You yourself played Hitler in 1983 in your remake of the film “To Be or not To Be”...
Brooks: ... and I also gave him my voice in a song in "The Producers".
SPIEGEL: How does it feel for a Jew to slip into the skin of his greatest enemy?
Brooks: It is an inverted seizure of power. For many years Hitler was the most powerful man in the world and almost destroyed us. To posses this power and turn it against him -– it is simply alluring.
Can we turn Islamic State's power against it with humor?