anyway jokes by straight / cis people that rely on expectations of violence towards gay / trans people are Bad Content.
(example: cis person looks at a trans person, says “god that’s unacceptable”, and the punchline is them saying “THOSE shoes with THAT skirt?” or some shit like that)
like the entirety of the joke is “haha I’m homophobic / transphobic” & the entirety of the punchline is “oops! I can’t believe you thought I was actually homophobic/transphobic!” & it’s just like ??? the entire substance of the joke relies on the person telling the joke to have the power to act violently against the audience.
i mean i wanted to make this post like a month ago but I couldn’t find the words for it & I hope I can help other people have the words to explain it, because like, for example this:
This joke relies solely on the idea that we, the audience of the joke, would see the statement “This is inappropriate. At your age, you should know better. Some things are just plain unacceptable”, and associate the word “this” with “wearing a skirt” rather than “cleaning the skirt incorrectly”.
The punchline of the joke isn’t so much “ha ! I’m not actually transphobic!” as it is “ha! simply being and existing is dangerous for you because of people that think in the way that I tricked you into believing that I think in!”
The joke is only effective as a “joke” at all because of the expectation of violence.
THIS. THIS IS IMPORTANT.
It’s like… when people laugh when they’re relieved. They’re not laughing because the situation they just got out of was funny, it’s because it could have ended horribly.
You know those old cartoon gags where one character points a gun at another and instead of a bullet coming out it’s just a little flag that says “BANG” on it? Or it turns out to be a water gun? It’s like that. There’s a reason why it’s no longer used in cartoons anymore and why it’s such an effective horror tool (a la the Joker from Batman).
Imagine if, in a show, a girl was walking home alone at night and it cuts between her and a guy following her. So she starts to run and he runs to keep up, and just before she can get to a safe place, the guy reaches her and grabs her shoulder and turns her around–and then he holds out, oh I don’t know, her wallet or a tube of lipgloss or a packet of tissues or something, anything, it doesn’t matter, and he says “Hey, you dropped this, I was trying to return it but you just kept running.” And then “Okay, have a nice night,” and then he leaves.
And then a laugh track comes on.
You see why that would be messed up, right?
Relief isn’t a punchline. Safety isn’t something that should be played around with.
JackSGreyson Says 