- Richard Bernstein’s “’Just Kidding’ – But at Whose Expense” was published in The New York Times in 1990. In the article, he argues that as society has adopted a more liberal set of values, some people increasingly encounter situations in which they cannot express themselves as they would like to, especially when it comes to satirizing or mocking the actions of others. In these cases people experience strong, adverse reactions to their comedic remarks. Bernstein wants to prove that there is a safe place for these sorts of comedians in the entertainment industry, where all of this backlash can be avoided. By using a series of examples and including some testimonials from various comics, politicians, academics, news reporters, etc., he wants to demonstrate that only those in the show business are exempt from society marking them as offensive and hurtful when making fun of certain marginalized communities. He believes that entertainers are only saying what many of the people in the audience are thinking but aren’t allowed to say, due to the increasing social responsibility that is being imparted in the modern world. Bernstein goes on to observe that, nonetheless, it is acceptable for minorities to mock those in positions of power and he suggests that such allowance could be seen as hypocritical. He finalizes his article by also considering how members of those marginalized social groups can ridicule each other without that being seen as oppressive, saying that this “new” society tends to embrace those who laugh at themselves more that those who make fun of others.
- With the intention to prove that comedians in the entertainment industry are able to speak for many “voiceless” members of society that have been repressed by the values liberalism, Bernstein includes multiple examples and testimonials in his article. One of these examples is Andrew Dice Clay, a comedian that was recognized for his aggressive and offensive humor that targeted many marginalized communities. To support the notion that entertainers such as Clay are a source of comfort for many members of society, he shares social critic Paul Fussell’s view on that particular subject. Fussell argues that, “if someone like Andrew Dice Clay is packing them into arenas, it shows that people are getting sick of what I call the compulsorily sincere society. There’s a political meaning to it also, a reaction against liberalism. People like to express their annoyance at a number of the causes that liberals have taken up, like feminism, civil rights, the requirement to be tolerant” (qtd. in Bernstein). The fact that throughout the article Bernstein writes as if racist and sexist people were victims of this “requirement to be tolerant,” and as if they were repressed and unfairly condemned by the liberal society, reflects a position of privilege and blindness to the actual state of the world. I did not live during 1990 so I do not know what the situation was back then, but I don’t think it was better than it is now. I think those spaces where Bernstein argues that people can go and hear comedians saying what they wish they could say themselves only enable a more racist and sexist conduct. Reserving judgmental and harmful comments to the comics is still a way of perpetuating hatred and injustice in society.
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