Joke Capital, Punching Up/Punching Down, and Accounting for the Ethical Relation between Joker and Target

Roles

Thomas Wilk '05, Gettysburg College

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-11-2024

Department 1

Philosophy

Department 2

Judaic Studies

Abstract

The currently dominant view concerning humor ethics is punching up/punching down. According to this view, members of one community with less social capital are allowed to make jokes at the expense of another with more social capital as a means of achieving social justice, while those in a community with more social capital are forbidden from making jokes about those with less. The latter is considered an act of bullying, which further entrenches pre-existing social injustice. While there is value in the moral intuitions that underlay this view, it falls prey to several problems. A new approach, the joke capital approach, is introduced which has the virtue of accounting for the cases in which punching up/punching down is effective but also is capable of handling the problematic cases.

DOI

10.1515/phhumyb-2024-0004

Version

Version of Record

Required Publisher's Statement

This article is available for purchase on the publisher's website: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/phhumyb-2024-0004/html.

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