Can Natural Disasters be Funny?

© Copyright 2007 John Cole - All Rights Reserved
politicalcartoons.com
http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/e3d1d2fb-9a07-4361-8e7a-30a7e0ee50e5.html

A family is down on their luck with their home in foreclosure, but it turns out not to be so bad after all because Mother Nature had her own way of taking their home away. A disheartening thought, but since things were bad already this isn't much worse, right?

As with the Doniger piece that we read regarding September 11, I too wonder if it is to soon to joke , or whether we should joke at all, about the horrific natural disaster taking place in California. Doniger mentions a remark that Jay Leno made about Osamo bin Laden stating, "it's OK to make fun of the bad guy." Doesn't seem so awful if we put the bad guys at the butt of the joke, but in the above example the bad guy isn't a person (at least we don't know if it is or not yet), so the butt of the joke is specifically on the situation itself. To me this type of comic relief would seem permissible to a larger audience than one knocking the so called "bad guy." The finger can't be pointed at anyone specifically so why not joke about it.

Even though we don't have someone to point the finger at, people still want to joke about these types of events, I beleive mostly for some much needed relief. But, for me, being a complete outsider to the events happening in California, it was hard to look at this comic and laugh. I feel because I am not there and experiencing the terror that I don't have the right to laugh. Doniger mentions this in her article as well. Stating that, "permission to joke is only granted to the victims." I tend to agree with her, at least at first. How does anyone have the right to make jokes about something so horrible unless you are the one who experienced it. As the events grow older and become outdated more people will begin to joke about them, but until that time the humor should be reserved for those specifically involved. Allowing the victims to joke will provide them with much needed relief to a situation that seems impossible to deal with.

The key to this comic is that the joke is on the situation itself and not the people that are being affected. If this were pertaining to all the lives lost it would be seen callus and distastful, but with homes and entire cities being demolished, sometimes there is nothing more to do than make fun of the situation and laugh, and the above comic is a perfect example of how to do so.