When a Joke Is No Joke

WHEN comedian Jackie Mason recently called New York City mayoral candidate David L. Dinkins a "fancy schvartzer with a moustache" who looked like a "Black model without a job," Jewish and Black groups were quick to criticize him. ("Schvartzer" is a derogatory Yiddish term for Blacks.)

But when Mason performed similar material (without mention of Dinkins) this summer at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the audience did not respond with outrage. They laughed. Mason's derogatory remarks about Blacks and Hispanics were just "part of the act."

This vast discrepancy reveals that humor that is funny in one context can be offensive in another. A small audience with shared experiences and expectations takes Mason's act to be a parody of old-time American Judaism. A racially-charged electorate, on the other hand, isn't ready to joke about racial or ethnic stereotypes.

Mason's case is indicative of a larger truth. The context of humor--and not the intent of the comedian or some inherent quality of the joke--primarily determines what is funny and what is inappropriate.

SOME Harvard students and faculty would do well to learn this lesson. At the beginning of every school year, the Crimson Key Society shows Love Story to first-year students in Rocky-Horror fashion with Crimson Key members yelling out dozens of dark jokes.

As Dulcy Anderson '93 and Serena Volpp '93 pointed out in a letter to The Crimson on September 22, many of these jokes contribute to a sexist stereotype of a mean, self-centered Radcliffe "bitch."

Crimson Key members have responded to these charges by stressing that their remarks were not just directed at women, but also at cancer patients, the dead and administrators, among others. They say that their intent was not to be sexist, but just to make people laugh.

I'll be honest. I laughed. And I don't believe that a single Crimson Key member can be fairly accused of believing in sexist stereotypes. But the same jokes which are funny at Crimson Key get-togethers around a VCR take on new meaning in the context of orientation to Harvard.

The first week of school is a time for first-year students to adjust to the norms of behavior of their new home. For example, some newcomers may not view racist or homophobic slang terms as a big deal; they soon learn that the Harvard community does not tolerate such language.

When Crimson Key members shout "bitch!" every time the female protagonist comes on screen, first-year students get the impression that sexist attitudes are acceptable here. For all their claims about not singling out women, Crimson Key members would never shout classic racist epithets or homophobic slurs at the movie screen.

In front of 300 first-year students, sexist jokes do more than reflect the prevalence of sexism at Harvard; they reinforce sexist attitudes among those who are looking to fit in.

IN Social Analysis 10, sexist jokes have a different effect; they serve to discourage women from the field of economics. In his lecture of October 2, Baker Professor of Economics Martin S. Feldstein '61 told a joke about the problems of American capitalism as symbolized by a stereotypical nuclear family.

In the joke, the father who works selling stocks and bonds represents "capital," the mother who is a house-wife represents "management," and the female maid stands for "labor." The punch line is that sometimes, capital "exploits" labor while management sleeps.

Feldstein told the class that if the joke "helps you remember the main components of production and growth, so much the better."

Like most of Ec 10, I found the joke somewhat funny. Among tenured economists, it might be downright hilarious. But the joke is entirely inappropriate for an introductory course in a department that is trying to attract more female concentrators.

Feldstein surely did not intend to discourage women, but his suggestion that students use jokes about housewives and abused maids as study guides is not likely to produce a more genderbalanced department. Economics is one of the most popular majors for women at Wellesley--and people justifiably wonder why so few women choose the department here.

HUMOR, like everything else, has its time and its place. Some jokes--like Mason's--may have no place at all. And while most humor puts someone or something down, I try to stick to targets who are not subject to hateful denigration. (Yale, the QRR, Harvard administrators and tenured economists all fall into this category.)

Sometimes, a joke is not a joke is not a joke. In the wrong context, humor is no laughing matter.