By Betselot Wondimu ‘15

Sometimes, moral sentiments get taken way too far. Dark comedy, or humor that makes light of tragic or taboo topics, has become a prevalent form of mainstream entertainment in modern society. Although a select group of people find the heavy content of the jokes offensive, controversial, ungodly and therefore condemnable, they actually fail to understand the fundamental purpose of comedy and satire throughout history: to make people think about things they usually wouldn’t.

Take this, for example: While performing a monologue on Saturday Night Live (SNL) last March, comedian Louis CK began a commentary on religion and God. “I think if there is a God, I don’t know if it’s the one in the Bible, because that’s a weird story. It’s ‘he’s our father, and we’re his children’ … What did he do to our mom?” People in the crowd laughed hysterically as he continued. “Somewhere in Heaven there’s a porch with a dead lady under it and I want the story … How can we not have a mother? At least maybe God’s divorced. Maybe he has an ex-wife. God’s a single dad and he’s raising us alone.”

An immediate twitter-backlash ensued criticizing CK and the current state of comedy. Unfortunately, some people didn’t see the underlying purpose of his jokes about religion and its validity. The people in that audience weren’t laughing about the possibility of God being a killer or a struggling single father—that would be terrifying and heartbreaking, respectively—but rather at the irrational, accusatory character that CK created. They laugh because CK, and other comedians like him, are actually mocking self-indulgent individuals who agree with what he’s saying as well as people who are strongly offended by what he’s saying. He’s really hitting two birds with one stone.

Critics of dark comedy fail to understand that the best jokes tackle real world topics that stem from adversity. CK went on to discuss patriarchy and the oppression of women throughout history. He forced the crowd to at least think about the “political” topic of sexism by placing it in the fun and relaxing context of a comedy show, which is something very few people have the ability to do. Jokes about spoons or Biblical characters simply aren’t as vivid as topics such as racism, poverty and religious doubt. There’s no need to feel bad about enjoying this form of comedy. There’s actually something wrong if you don’t.