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Full Idea
Sometimes it is exactly what is offensive about a joke that makes it funny.
Gist of Idea
Jokes can sometimes be funny because they are offensive
Source
Daniel Jacobson (Ethical Criticism and the Vice of Moderation [2006], 'emotional')
Book Ref
'Aesthetics and the Phil of Art (debates)', ed/tr. Kieran,Matthew [Blackwell 2004], p.350
A Reaction
Jacobson offers this in support of his immoralist view, that immoral literature can be aesthetically successful. It is uncomfortable to find yourself laughing at a joke of which you disapprove.
Related Idea
Idea 22697 Moral defects of art can be among its aesthetic virtues [Jacobson,D]
| 7494 | Laughter is mad; of mirth, what doeth it? [Anon (Ecc)] |
| 8767 | Sorrow is better than laughter [Anon (Ecc)] |
| 6211 | Laughter is a sudden glory in realising the infirmity of others, or our own formerly [Hobbes] |
| 12171 | Absurdity is incongruity between correct and false points of view [Schopenhauer] |
| 22047 | Wherever there is painless contradiction there is also comedy [Kierkegaard] |
| 14833 | Comedy is a transition from fear to exuberance [Nietzsche] |
| 18303 | Reject wisdom that lacks laughter [Nietzsche] |
| 12318 | The female body, when taken in its entirety, is the Phallus itself [Badiou] |
| 12169 | Since only men laugh, it seems to be an attribute of reason [Scruton] |
| 12170 | Amusement rests on superiority, or relief, or incongruity [Scruton] |
| 12172 | Objects of amusement do not have to be real [Scruton] |
| 12173 | The central object of amusement is the human [Scruton] |
| 6848 | Humour is practically enacted philosophy [Critchley] |
| 6847 | Humour can give a phenomenological account of existence, and point to change [Critchley] |
| 22701 | Jokes can sometimes be funny because they are offensive [Jacobson,D] |