1. The Ethics of Humor: Can’t You Take a Joke?
Steve Gimbel Gettysburg College

2. Innocent jokes vs. Tendentious jokes
Freud’s Distinction
Innocent jokes vs. Tendentious jokes

3. Innocent jokes vs. Tendentious jokes
Freud’s Distinction
Innocent jokes vs. Tendentious jokes
plays on words, puns,
clean jokes

4. Innocent jokes vs. Tendentious jokes
Freud’s Distinction
Innocent jokes vs. Tendentious jokes
plays on words, puns, 1. Dirty jokes
clean jokes,… Ethnic jokes

5. Is it morally acceptable to tell and enjoy tendentious jokes?
The Ethical Question
Is it morally acceptable to tell and enjoy tendentious jokes?

6. Aristotle on Humor as a Virtue
Boor Wit Buffoon

7. Moral Positions on Tendentious Jokes
Boor Wit Buffoon
Tendentious jokes
are immoral and
should never be
told.

8. Moral Positions on Tendentious Jokes
Boor Wit Buffoon
Tendentious jokes Go to town,
are immoral and anything goes.
should never be
told.

9. Moral Positions on Tendentious Jokes
Boor Wit Buffoon
Tendentious jokes Some tendentious jokes Go to town,
are immoral and are allowed in some anything goes.
should never be contexts.
told.

10. Moral Positions on Tendentious Jokes
Cultural Wit Buffoon Sensitivity Position

11. Moral Positions on Tendentious Jokes
Cultural Wit Buffoon
Sensitivity
Position
Being the butt of a joke is a harm.
Tendentious jokes entrench imbalances in social power and grant justification for discriminatory beliefs and practices.
Tendentious jokes are offensive and it is morally wrong to offend people.
Tendentious jokes are in bad taste and bad taste is a moral category, not just a matter of etiquette.

12. Moral Positions on Tendentious Jokes
Cultural Wit Neo-Shaftsburianism Sensitivity Position

13. Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

14. Moral Positions on Tendentious Jokes
Cultural Wit Neo-Shaftsburianism Sensitivity Position Shakespearean Nihilistic Cultural Cohesive

15. Moral Positions on Tendentious Jokes
Cultural Wit Neo-Shaftsburianism
Sensitivity
Position
Shakespearean Nihilistic Cultural Cohesive
Ridicule is a test of truth, so
nothing should be off-limits
as we need to be able to
challenge power which may
obscure truth.

16. Moral Positions on Tendentious Jokes
Cultural Wit Neo-Shaftsburianism
Sensitivity
Position
Shakespearean Nihilistic Cultural Cohesive
Jokes have no meaning,
so there is no sense in
a moral moratorium since
we are just joking.

17. Moral Positions on Tendentious Jokes
Cultural Wit Neo-Shaftsburianism
Sensitivity
Position
Shakespearean Nihilistic Cultural Cohesive
Jokes are a social signal that a group has been accepted into the larger culture while being allowed to keep their identity as a minority group.

18. Moral Positions on Tendentious Jokes
Cultural Contextualism Neo-Shaftsburianism Sensitivity Position

19. Moral Positions on Tendentious Jokes
Cultural Contextualism Neo-Shaftsburianism
Sensitivity
Position
Identity Politics Position
One can only tell tendentious jokes
about one’s own group.

20. Moral Positions on Tendentious Jokes
Cultural Contextualism Neo-Shaftsburianism
Sensitivity
Position
Identity Politics Position
Humor as the Sword of Justice
One can tell tendentious jokes that punch up,
but not those that punch down. This allows the
power of humor to serve social justice.

21. Moral Positions on Tendentious Jokes
Cultural Contextualism Neo-Shaftsburianism
Sensitivity
Position
Identity Politics Position
Humor as the Sword of Justice
The Correct View
Everyone is fair game, but not all jokes are allowed. Telling a tendentious joke is taking a moral
risk.

22. Humor Theory
Humor: a playful demonstration of cleverness

23. Humor Theory Humor: a playful demonstration of cleverness
Conspicuousness and the play frame that creates joke world

24. Humor Theory Humor: a playful demonstration of cleverness
Use vs. mention vs. acknowledge

25. Humor Theory Humor: a playful demonstration of cleverness
Use vs. mention vs. acknowledge
Pure jokes vs. kidding-on-the-square

26. Humor Theory Humor: a playful demonstration of cleverness
Use vs. mention vs. acknowledge
Pure jokes vs. kidding-on-the-square
Conversational quip vs. constructed comedy vs. repeated joke

27. Humor Theory Humor: a playful demonstration of cleverness
Use vs. mention vs. acknowledge
Pure jokes vs. kidding-on-the-square
Conversational quip vs. constructed comedy vs. repeated joke
Gricean conversational implicatures and the inference to “I was just joking.”