Punching Up Instead Of Down: The Art Of Finding The Proper Victim In Comedy

At some point in this movie, Seth Rogen maybe wishes he didn’t anger the American Sniper crowd.

My wife and I watched The Interview off Netflix recently.  It was funny in some places, not so much in others, but it got me to thinking about why it is considered acceptable to mock some figures in comedy and not others.  The basic idea is, it is OK to “punch up” and not to “punch down”.

To be clear, this has nothing to do with free speech rights or anything along those lines.  It simply has to do with what is and is not funny.  That’s highly subjective at the best of times for any number of people.  So, to make things as clear as possible, these are my thoughts on what is and isn’t funny, and that is not to stop anyone from making jokes at the expense of anyone anywhere.

Also, there’s going to be some MASSIVE SPOILERS below the cut for The Interview, so you’ve been warned.

Gabbing Geek 21: Golden Son & Prophecies

This. Read this. Now. Unless you haven’t read the first book. In which case, read that. Then read this.

 

Gabbing Geek’s first podcast of 2015 is now live and we FINALLY get to talk about Golden Son, the second book in the Red Rising trilogy.  If you’ve read the first book, Red Rising, or don’t care about spoilers for the first book, then you’ll absolutely want to listen to this episode–we don’t spoil anything for book 2.  But if you want to participate in our Gabbing Geek Book Club in 4 weeks, be sure to read both Red Rising and Golden Son (they’re page turners, you won’t have any problems, Jenny guarantees it!).