{"id":69252,"date":"2016-08-10T09:37:43","date_gmt":"2016-08-10T14:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=69252"},"modified":"2016-08-10T01:46:46","modified_gmt":"2016-08-10T06:46:46","slug":"humor-theorist-explains-trumps-joke-about-killing-hillary-clinton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2016\/08\/10\/humor-theorist-explains-trumps-joke-about-killing-hillary-clinton\/","title":{"rendered":"Humor Theorist Explains Trump&#8217;s &#8220;Joke&#8221; about Killing Hillary Clinton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday Donald Trump appeared to suggest that defenders of the 2nd Amendment should assassinate Hillary Clinton if she is elected. Or maybe any judges she appoints to the Supreme Court. It wasn&#8217;t very clear.<\/p>\n<p>Supporters rushed to his defense, suggesting he was joking. Here&#8217;s what a humor scholar, Jason P. Steed, had to say about that via Twitter:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">1. I wrote my PhD dissertation on the social function of humor (in literature &amp; film) and here&#8217;s the thing about &#8220;just joking.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763098172633657344\">August 9, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\"><p>\n2. You&#8217;re never &#8220;just joking.&#8221; Nobody is ever &#8220;just joking.&#8221; Humor is a social act that performs a social function (always).<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763098454872633344\">August 9, 2016<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">3. To say humor is social act is to say it is always in social context; we don&#8217;t joke alone. Humor is a way we relate\/interact with others.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763099120638709761\">August 9, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\"><p>\n4. Which is to say, humor is a way we construct identity &#8211; who we are in relation to others. We use humor to form groups&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763099494225354752\">August 9, 2016<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">5. &#8230;and to find our individual place in or out of those groups. In short, joking\/humor is one tool by which we assimilate or alienate.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763099907913764864\">August 9, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\"><p>\n6. IOW, we use humor to bring people into &#8211; or keep them out of &#8211; our social groups. This is what humor *does.* What it&#8217;s for.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763100639094112256\">August 9, 2016<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">7. Consequently, how we use humor is tied up with ethics &#8211; who do we embrace, who do we shun, and how\/why?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763101046449156096\">August 9, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\"><p>\n8. And the assimilating\/alienating function of humor works not only only people but also on *ideas.* This is important.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763101497848582144\">August 9, 2016<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">9. This is why, e.g., racist &#8220;jokes&#8221; are bad. Not just because they serve to alienate certain people, but also because&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763101843870261249\">August 9, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\"><p>\n10. &#8230;they serve to assimilate the idea of racism (the idea of alienating people based on their race). And so we come to Trump.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763102175086022657\">August 9, 2016<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">11. A racist joke sends a message to the in-group that racism is acceptable. (If you don&#8217;t find it acceptable, you&#8217;re in the out-group.)<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763103010922729473\">August 9, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\"><p>\n12. The racist joke teller might say &#8220;just joking&#8221; &#8211; but this is a *defense* to the out-group. He doesn&#8217;t have to say this to the in-group.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763103436019683328\">August 9, 2016<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">13. This is why we&#8217;re never &#8220;just joking.&#8221; To the in-group, no defense of the joke is needed; the idea conveyed is accepted\/acceptable.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763103833258024960\">August 9, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\"><p>\n14. So, when Trump jokes about assassination or armed revolt, he&#8217;s asking the in-group to assimilate\/accept that idea. That&#8217;s what jokes do.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763104212532113408\">August 9, 2016<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">15. And when he says &#8220;just joking,&#8221; that&#8217;s a defense offered to the out-group who was never meant to assimilate the idea in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763104480837586944\">August 9, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\"><p>\n16. Indeed, circling back to the start, the joke *itself* is a way to define in-group and out-group, through assimilation &amp; alienation.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763104882953818112\">August 9, 2016<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">17. If you&#8217;re willing to accept &#8220;just joking&#8221; as defense, you&#8217;re willing to enter in-group where idea conveyed by the joke is acceptable.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763105256615981056\">August 9, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\"><p>\n18. IOW, if &#8220;just joking&#8221; excuses racist jokes, then in-group has accepted idea of racism as part of being in-group.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763106663578554368\">August 9, 2016<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">19. Same goes for &#8220;jokes&#8221; about armed revolt or assassinating Hillary Clinton. They cannot be accepted as &#8220;just joking.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763107052709294080\">August 9, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\"><p>\n20. Now, a big caveat: humor (like all language) is complicated and always a matter of interpretation. For example, we might have&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763107559200858112\">August 9, 2016<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">21. &#8230;racist humor that is, in fact, designed to alienate (rather than assimilate) the idea of racism. (Think satire or parody.)<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763108091571216384\">August 9, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\"><p>\n22. But I think it&#8217;s pretty clear Trump was not engaging in some complex satirical form of humor. He was &#8220;just joking.&#8221; In the worst sense.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763108472120422400\">August 9, 2016<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">23. Bottom line: don&#8217;t accept &#8220;just joking&#8221; as excuse for what Trump said today. The in-group for that joke should be tiny. Like his hands.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason P. Steed (@5thCircAppeals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\/status\/763109180555210753\">August 9, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nYou can follow Jason P. Steed on Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/5thCircAppeals\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday Donald Trump appeared to suggest that defenders of the 2nd Amendment should assassinate Hillary Clinton if she is elected. Or maybe any judges she appoints to the Supreme Court. It wasn&#8217;t very clear. Supporters rushed to his defense, suggesting he was joking. Here&#8217;s what a humor scholar, Jason P. Steed, had to say about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":69260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[256,85,20068,283,37,133],"class_list":["post-69252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-humor","tag-politics","tag-politics-election-2016","tag-prejudicediscrimination","tag-social-psychology","tag-violence"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2016\/08\/1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69252"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69259,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69252\/revisions\/69259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}