Essay Does Comedy Promote Social Change

Does comedy help promote social change? Ramon Lopez, Iain Ellis and the documentary Tickling Giants demonstrate how comedy has had some social change but has not had a positive impact on society nor promoted great social change. Ellis discusses about how The Talk Show brought about a change in society but not a positive change in which the comedian expected since the nation returned to where they started or even worse. While Lopez discuss how the comedian Jon Stewart does not promote positive social change but rather degrading change in society. I agree that comedy can have a social effect but disagree that comedians can bring about a positive change. Due to the fact that the audience might interpret the comedian’s idea in a different way than the comedian or how the comedian executes his idea to the public.
Although some might consider manipulating …show more content…
“Jokes ease tension”(Khazan,114) comedians are able to capture the audience but does not guarantee that the audience will digest the issue in the way the comedian wanted. Many can argue that if humor eases tension then that promotes social change. In fact that is true but the outcome of how an individual might approach this can be negative thus no producing positive change. Humor is used as an outlet to address issues but can not make all views the same to an issue.
Comedians do have a big impact in society since they can captivate many individuals whom will watch and listen to them. Many might believe they can have a social impact and change society. Yes, this can be true although they can have a social change it is not guaranteed that it will be a positive impact on society. This change is open to interpretation by the audience even if the comedian wanted them to interpret it another way. Thus there will be change but positive change is not