Is There Room for Humor in Human Trafficking?

Last month, I wrote about an Ohio morning radio show in which a D.J. decidedly crossed the line with his repulsive commentary about sex slavery. I stand by my original statement that Rover's "jokes" were less humorous than harmful, and at the very least, he should issue a public apology. But maybe it's easy for me to reach this conclusion because I'm not a fan of shock radio. What about other types of humor? How do we, as both abolitionists and people who love a good laugh (I assume you do), sort out what is funny and what is damaging?

My husband and I ended up seeing Date Night a few weeks ago, and to be honest, I found it very funny. I had read reviews beforehand that gave it high marks, but wasn't sure I'd get into the far-fetched plot. Tina Fey and Steve Carrell's mad improv skills, however, absolved the ridiculousness of their characters' misadventures with the mob on their night out in Manhattan. And my admiration for the actors' talents progressed beyond my undying love for 30 Rock and The Office.

But then I read this post on Love 146's blog by a writer, Lamont Hiebert, who had a very different impression of Date Night. The movie was ruined for him by one particular scene, in which Tina Fey poses as a stripper and says, "Work the pole like a runaway." Later, during outtakes, she tries on another line: "Work that pole like a Russian immigrant."

Yikes. Did I miss those lines? If I had heard them, would I have cringed, too? (Yes.) Clearly, they weren't huge moments in the film, but as Hiebert points out, the jokes were made "at the expense of women and girls who are beaten, drugged, enslaved, and raped for another's profit." Generally speaking, I'd say Fey's comedy is far more evolved than Rover the Shock Jock, but these little riffs ... not so much.

And then there's The Onion, the highly awesome news parody group that is often funny because of its over-the-top wrongness. The Onion, in its witty, cutting way, tends to go where few others dare. But what about this blurb, titled "Lawrence Taylor Asks Exactly Which 16-Year-Old Prostitute Reporters Are Talking About?" The "joke" here is that the sports star has raped so many minors, he has no idea which incident he's being arrested for. Um ... ha ha? And the last line is the most uncomfortable, cringe-worthy of all: "Taylor admitted that determining the identity of the underage girl would be difficult because most of the 16-year-old prostitutes he knew were dead."

All comedians and comic writers are going to miss the mark sometimes, and yes, I'd say this one's a definite "miss," completely uncool. Mainstream entertainment such as Date Night and The Onion certainly contribute to the national conversation about a topic and help form or reinforce perceptions — so how responsible should those comedians be for their jokes? I think the best rule of thumb really is: Do no harm. Have fun, go where you need to go, but consider the message, along with what and whom exactly you are mocking. Should an underage or internationally-trafficked prostitute be your punch line? Who really deserves the skewer? I'm thinking it's the pimps, whose glamorized image could use a fine tarnish. Or the johns, celebrities and sports stars included, who deserve their fair share of the blame.

Photo credit: amatern