Today I'm thinking about humorlessness

lessnessness

So: “Barbenheimer.” I haven’t seen either movie, so for now, I’m mostly interested in the mashup memes. I think Branjelina was my first. Then Beniffer. At the time, these combos seemed funny and now they seem stale, but harmless. Of course they’ve got nothing on the the portmanteau and its noble history (hello, brunch!). But for a minute, they were clever.

Not so much “Barbenheimer.” In fact, I think “Barbenheimer” is awful. Like: the opposite of funny. Don’t get me wrong, I *get* why it’s supposed to be funny. I *get* what irony is and the combustable magic (see what I just did there?) of the poles in congress. All the same, I doubt anyone living in, say, HIROSHIMA, finds the mashup funny.

I think about this a lot. Tasteless humor that’s hilarious vs tasteless humor that’s just tasteless. I think a lot about who gets to arbitrate where the line is. And what it means when you find something humorless when no one else does—or at least when most people don’t. I think, too, about sexism in this context and how often women are told to just “lighten up.” Don’t be a stick in the mud, Barbicaust is hilarious!

Maybe the problem I’m having is this:

I mean, if you’re gonna mashup and gird your mashup with irony—sadistic irony, really—it might work, but it definitely *can’t* work if you don’t even know you’re being sadistic.

But say you do know. Say you’re well aware we murdered about 230,000 people, most of whom died in the most gruesome ways imaginable (Have you read Voices from Chernobyl? Because this might be the most harrowing book I’ve ever read and these people weren’t even *bombed,” just (*just*—ugh) irradiated.), say you want to pit all of that against (or pair with) the labial juggernaut that is Barbie—still not funny. Even if you decide this isn’t about irony but really a mashup of two GROSS things about the United States wrapped in one, still not funny!

Which feeling makes me feel old and crabby. Or superior. Or all of the above, really. Why can’t I just laugh and have a good time and stop being such a DEBBIE DOWNER? I could go on at some length about this SNL skit, but I’ll spare you.

Do you think Barbenheimer is funny? Tell me why.

Love to all.

fm