What is Humor?

After reading this post on NPR's site, I had to ask myself, "Is joking still joking as we know it intuitively, or is joking now a political evasion maneuver, a bunker to which a statement-redacting candidate can retreat to?" Joking is now a "judo move" that allows anyone to say anything without ever having to own what they say.

"I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?' Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the spending."

If Bachmann is joking, so be it. She is making jokes at the great expense of others' losses. If she is serious, so be it. Let her stand firm in her faith. Either way, this is bad rhetoric. She has branded herself to non-believers as insensitive to others' sufferings, and she has labeled herself to believers as a flip-flopper.


Jokes, and the nature of our jokes, reveal a lot about what we believe and who we are--jokes, and the jokes we laugh at, reveal a great deal of our character. Joking or not, Bachmann revealed her character. Why, then, should she backpedal from it? If you are are going to say something from the heart, then stick to it. Stand by it, be proud of it. Why redact by simply saying, "Oh, don't take me so seriously. I was only joking." Is that what we want in leadership? Someone who jokes about situations that are not funny at all, only to have them say, "Lighten up"?

Say what you mean, and mean what you say, otherwise your words loose value in the ears of your listeners.