More on Urban Legends
I have just started watching MythBusters on DVD from Netflix. I really enjoy the show, naturally, because I hate the existence of urban legends[1] and am happy to see them debunked in a very public fashion. (But also, as a genuine boy, I love to watch things blow up, etc. -- as long as people and animals are not hurt.[2])
The main reason that I hate urban legends is that many of them are flat out lies[1], and I am disturbed by the willful deception of people starting them. I am also concerned by the gullibleness of the people believing and/or spreading them.[3]
But watching MythBusters has made me aware of another thing that bothers me about them -- and about many jokes in general -- and that is false stereotyping.
Now, some of you may know my general stance on stereotyping.[4]; I think that stereotyping is over-criticized. I think stereotyping has many non-offensive and highly-useful practicalities.
Jokes, in my opinion, are not one of them.
Maybe I am too snobby now, but I rarely ever find jokes based on stereotypes funny. But a lot of people really do. I don't get that. They are almost on the same level as juvenile potty jokes to me.
Learning more about the history of urban legends from both Mythusters and Snopes.com has been fascinating to me. I have learned how many of them always have a stereotypically dumb person as the victim or cause of destruction.
For example, if it were not bad enough that people would find the painful death by electrocution of a man peeing on the high-voltage third rail of a train track funny (Even though the story is not true, many who believe it to be true still find it funny), it is made worse by the fact that the victim is almost always Irish in the various tellings of the story. Or the person who supposedly blew her husband/uncle off the toilet by stupidly putting something explosive in it -- it is always a woman or uneducated servant in every version of the story who is responsible for the "dumb" act.
Boo on human nature....
The main reason that I hate urban legends is that many of them are flat out lies[1], and I am disturbed by the willful deception of people starting them. I am also concerned by the gullibleness of the people believing and/or spreading them.[3]
But watching MythBusters has made me aware of another thing that bothers me about them -- and about many jokes in general -- and that is false stereotyping.
Now, some of you may know my general stance on stereotyping.[4]; I think that stereotyping is over-criticized. I think stereotyping has many non-offensive and highly-useful practicalities.
Jokes, in my opinion, are not one of them.
Maybe I am too snobby now, but I rarely ever find jokes based on stereotypes funny. But a lot of people really do. I don't get that. They are almost on the same level as juvenile potty jokes to me.
Learning more about the history of urban legends from both Mythusters and Snopes.com has been fascinating to me. I have learned how many of them always have a stereotypically dumb person as the victim or cause of destruction.
For example, if it were not bad enough that people would find the painful death by electrocution of a man peeing on the high-voltage third rail of a train track funny (Even though the story is not true, many who believe it to be true still find it funny), it is made worse by the fact that the victim is almost always Irish in the various tellings of the story. Or the person who supposedly blew her husband/uncle off the toilet by stupidly putting something explosive in it -- it is always a woman or uneducated servant in every version of the story who is responsible for the "dumb" act.
Boo on human nature....