Portfolio Response #2: Berlant

Berlant’s article titled “The Predator and the Jokester” explain the relationship between the two figures and how they both are able to wield power; a predator creates exploitable situations and is able to maintain control over them through the feeling that they “control the interactive space and that they’re unavoidable,” where the jokester surprises their target using humor. When a joke is casually told, it can catch the target off guard, rendering them equally as overwhelmed as the target of the predator, which is what grants the jokester power. Both the jokester and the predator rely upon using their power and privilege to keep others, usually people that are institutionally oppressed, from complaining about them, forcing them to more often than not “act like a good sport.” Bergen uses Al Franken to highlight the relationship between predatory behavior and comedy, who was able to use his privilege and situational control to keep victims quiet while he laughed off his sexual assault as a joke. She not only uses this example of a predator acting a jokester to escape responsibility for his actions, but also brings up the “it’s just a joke” attitude as an example of a jokester engaging in predatory behaviors in terms of manipulating situations and silencing those who are victimized by certain jokes.

In the article, Berlant says, “Here’s the thing about the jokester and the predator. Power shows its ugliest tentacles most clearly in these figures, yet they seem at opposite extremes.” While I do agree with her that typically we associate predator with bad and comic (jokester) with good, I don’t think that they are at opposite extremes. As someone who is institutionally less powerful than others, I more often than not am wary of “jokester” types, because I know how easy it is for the realities of my life to be turned into a joke at my expense.