Tough Crowd

Context: Eli reposted this short clip from @randyfeltface on his Instagram story.

Hi there. I know you didn’t mean any harm by what you’ve just posted, but I found it quite offensive. My husband passed away recently. Not in 2013. Very recently. The death of a spouse being a punchline is degrading and hurtful.

Oh, I’m really so sorry to hear of your husband’s passing, thank you for sharing that with me. Existential and occasionally provocative humour is very much Randy’s brand, I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Especially if you’re from Brampton.

Yeah, I’ve never seen this purple puppet before, and to be honest I’m a little shocked that you support this kind of comedy. How exactly do you justify it?

Well, as I see it, the joke is quite sophisticated. It’s probing at whether we hold on to our emotional baggage too tightly, for too long. He’s not diminishing the gravity of death or grief, he’s making a point about how we should find humour in the darker realities of human experience. He asks “when?” specifically because if the answer was “last week,” her sensitivity would be much more understandable.

I find it disgusting. Of all the things you could post, you post this? And if we’re going to be performing close-readings here, I’ll point out that he makes a mass generalization at the end, when he says “get over it Brampton.”

Aren’t you from Brampton?

Yes.

Isn’t this all a little ironic?

Ok, fuck you. Just so you know, there are plenty of people from Brampton who weren’t offended by his joke.

Oh, well that’s great!

No, it’s not great, it means he was making a false generalization.

Ah, fair point.

You’re so cavalier. Are you even taking this seriously?

Taking what seriously? To be fair, I am writing both of our lines in this dialogue. So I’m taking it at least as seriously as you are.

And what, the fact that you’re writing my lines gives you the right to be cavalier?

Yeah, kinda. It’s all part of the exploration. 

Oh, so now you’re using the fact that my husband died as part of your intellectual thought experiment?

Well, I’m using the fact that I made up the part about your husband dying for my intellectual thought experiment.

You realize that even more people are going to find it offensive that you’re appropriating someone else’s voice? My voice.

Hold on, we gotta get this straight. This is a fictional dialogue that I’m writing. We’re the same person.

Ok, so you’re fucking Socrates now, are you?

Yeah, I guess you could look at it that way, actually.

Looks like that Minor in Philosophy is paying off.

Isn’t it!

So you’re totally fine fabricating a story about a victim. About a fictional person from Brampton who lost their husband LATER than 2013. You’re just as bad as Randy. Maybe worse. I don’t know if you can mansplain to yourself, but I think you’ve managed it.

Whoa, no need to get ad hominem. Intention is the name of the game. Randy was doing a comedy show. That’s his job, he tries to make people laugh! He went all meta for this bit, talking about a time he failed to make people laugh, examining comedy itself. I’m an artist, a philosopher, a writer. I’ve spent the last three years immersing myself in the world of stand-up comedy for the film I’m directing, to learn more about the nuances around humour, offensiveness, provocation, and cancel culture. Ultimately, I’m just searching for meaning.

Ok, and you felt the need to publish this publicly, on social media?

Well I assume that anyone who’s bothering to read this is at the bare minimum interested in what I have to say. And it’s interesting to me! Surely that’s enough? This very dialogue is meant to illustrate how humour and fiction can be used to explore the human condition, even its darkest corners. It’s like Stephen Fry says: “That’s the genius of an artist – we die. We, the flesh, this case we have, dies and rots. And we know this! And mostly, we don’t particularly like to be reminded of it. Artists find it the most fascinating thing in the world.” I think that’s what’s happening here. We’re exploring death.

Ok, well now you’re losing me. I’m just going to say, on behalf of the rest of Brampton, you can fuck right off.

Have a good day!

The End