Does
the prevalence of sarcasm mark our age as distinctive? Skye Jethani so argues here.
If sarcasm is on the increase, is it a good thing or a bad thing? And why is it
on the increase? According to Jethani,"Phil
Vischer, the creator of VeggieTales, gave a speech at Yale
in 2005 in which he unpacked the media values of our generation -- the slow
descent from our parents' ‘dry, cocktail party wit of Johnny Carson’ to the ‘sarcasm
and twisted humor’ of David Letterman, and the emergence of the bottom-feeder
humor that is Beavis and Butt-head and South Park. In these
shows, Vischer says, ‘we had found our voice. We were safe from the world, as
long as everything was treated as a joke.’He continues: Some folks believe
Vietnam was the source of America's modern cynicism. Others point to Watergate.
But for me and for many others in my generation, the real root, I think, is
much closer to home and much more personal. When we were very young, our
parents broke their promises. Their promises to each other, and their promises
to us. And millions of American kids in a very short period of time learned
that the world isn't a safe place; that there isn't anyone who won't let you
down; that their hearts were much too fragile to leave exposed. And sarcasm, as
CS Lewis put it, ‘builds up around a man the finest armor-plating ... that I know.’”
Sarcasm
seems to me to be a mixed bag. It is an effective rhetorical tool in
criticizing customs, habits, institutions, and authorities. It is funny. Jon Stewart and
Stephen Colbert are justifiably successful. But it does create an emotional
distance – a dehumanizing “armor-plating.” As Jethani argues, it distances us from our anger and our fear. As I read him, he believes we cannot break through to love without confronting our anger and our fear. And,
surely, sarcasm in private conversation throws up interpersonal
barriers rather than opening the way to strengthening interpersonal
ties.
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