On humor in dark times

It is no secret that my hero, my teacher, my intellectual inspiration and my guiding light in all things is none other than the greatest philosopher of the 20th century.  George Carlin.

He is best remembered for his seven-words bit, which is an all-time classic.  No dispute.  What you may not know is that just before the 9/11 attacks, Dr. Carlin* was working on a new set.  "I Kinda Like It When A Lot Of People Die."  There was never a proper video special.  Go figure.  It is, however, on youtube, just like everything else.  Have a listen.  The fun starts at 18:57.



There were some earlier drafts of the bit, which don't seem to be available on youtube at the moment.  They lack the more upbeat "Uncle Dave" ending, to the degree that we can call that "upbeat," but still.  You can hear why recording this bit, right before 9/11, got problematic.  It's a pretty boundary-pushing act at any time, but right before 9/11... yeah.  George Carlin, ladies and gentlemen.  George Carlin.

Of course, one of the most famous plays in modern theater is an adaptation of the Mel Brooks movie, The Producers, for a bit of circularity.  By reducing Hitler to the buffoon he was as portrayed by Lorenzo St. Dubois (but his friends call him LSD), the play, "Springtime for Hitler" makes light of the Holocaust, and of course, that movie was sooner after WWII than the play.

One of the most famous bits from Monty Python and the Holy Grail was the "bring out your dead!" bit.  And that may hit a little closer to home right now.

Laugh.  You need to laugh.  Laughing in the face of death is a strange thing, I'll admit.  It requires a certain sense of humor, which many people don't share.  You'll note that hand clamped firmly over Carlin's mouth.  It's his own.  You'll note the look of sadness, shock and remorse on his face.  Quite an actor, my Georgie-boy.  It's a joke.

Or, as Bill Hicks would say, it's just a ride.

You'll note a theme here.  Carlin, Hicks, yesterday's mention of Stanhope... Comedians tend to bore me.  Did'ya ever notice?  Yes.  That's why I don't need to listen to you.  Go away.  There is, however, an art to finding humor in the darkest of subjects.  And that matters.

So, Carlin?  Or... escapism?

This really does have to do with fear.  There are two kinds of fear one can face right now.  Reasonable or unreasonable.

COVID-19 is probably not going to kill you.  I've gone through the math on this, but once again, there is a distinction between the societal toll it will take, and your individual risk.  I'm accustomed to the distinction because it is a core element of economic analysis.  You only really face individual risk if you have higher baseline probabilities.  So, for example, older ER doctors and nurses with pre-existing health conditions?  They should worry more.  They can't socially distance, they will be exposed, and their risks are higher.  If you aren't in an age or health category with those risks, if you can socially distance yourself, and all that, your probability of dying is very, very low.  Not zero, but low enough that freaking out just doesn't make sense.  This isn't the Georgia Flu, Captain Trips, Kellis-Amberlee, or whatever fictional apocalypse disease you want to reference.

Your economic risks?  Those could be big.  A lot of people are going to face some serious fallout here.  If you have a job that doesn't let you work from home, that isn't considered "essential," and so forth... you're gonna have some real problems.  Fearing the economic fallout?  That makes sense.

And then we have the social and political consequences of that.  We don't know.  We're in the territory of reasonable fears there.  Even if you have a job, which is protected, and you aren't in a high risk category.  Bad stuff is comin'.

So what does this mean for your reaction to humor?  The more scared you are, generally speaking, the more you recoil at something like Carlin's extended riff on taking joy in others' death.  Look, do you really think he was sitting around hoping for this?  Listen to the end of the bit.  It's about a bunch of Uncle Daves in what is essentially a magical alternate reality future.  He's joking.

I refer to Carlin as a "philosopher," in semi-facetious reference to Mel Brooks's History of the World, Part I.  In the movie,  Comicus refers to himself as a "stand-up philosopher."  Carlin did engage in deeper thought than many philosophers do.  I find so much of philosophy to be bogged down by solipsism and other forms of meaningless gamesmanship that it holds no appeal, whereas Carlin actually had things to say.  Buried amid the caustic humor was always insight.

Your ability to appreciate that, though, and your ability to appreciate the humor will depend at least partially on your fear, and its basis.  How scared are you, and why?

If you think you are going to die, then generally speaking, you aren't going to laugh at this stuff.  Yet, people who are over-estimating their probability of death are exactly the ones who need some humor.  However they find it is up to them, but they also need to bring down their overestimations of their probabilities of death.  Carlin might not help them do it, but if I could get everyone to read Tversky & Kahneman, I would.

The economics?  Those are scarier, but those also aren't the point of Carlin's bit.  You'll note that I'm making reference to Carlin's ill-fated pre-9/11 death rant, the Monty Python "bring out your dead" sketch, and the value of finding humor in the most morbid of subjects.

There's a difference between Heath Ledger's Joker doing the threatening, "why so serious," and Carlin finding humor in the prospect of mortality.

Tragedy + time = comedy, or so the saying goes.  Hence, the "bring out your dead" sketch doesn't tend to illicit any screams of rage from people doing the performative empathy thing.  On the other hand, Carlin's "I Kinda Like It When A Lot Of People Die" couldn't even be given its normal special.  Time.  Or lack thereof.

If I had a nickel for every time I've heard, "too soon..."

Anyway, why?  What is the alternative to laughter, and what does it say if you can't laugh?  If you can't laugh because you have lost your job, the economy is collapsing, and we don't know what may happen to civil and political society, that's actually quite different from the nature of Carlin's jokes, or even "bring out your dead."  That doesn't mean it couldn't be amenable to a different kind of humor, but that's tangential to my point.  If you can't laugh because you are worried about dying, do the math.  If you can't laugh because of the death toll itself... "Springtime for Hitler."  Bring out your dead!

What, too soon?  When will it not be too soon?  Would you rather cower than laugh?  Your probability of survival doesn't actually go up by cowering.  If you observe social distancing and laugh, your probability of survival is at least as high as if you observe social distancing and cower.  Probably a bit higher, given a lower stress level.

Unless raging at me through the interwebs gives you some kind of stress relief.  Hey!  That professor posted a Carlin clip amid a pandemic!  Get him!

If so, I may have just saved your life.  You're welcome.



*Honorary doctorate.  Conferred by me.