Complaint: From Minor Moans To Principled Protests - Plot & Excerpts
‘I don’t know why we come here, the food here is lousy’, says one, to which the other replies, ‘Yes, and the portions are so small.’ Jokes about complaining are not rare. The ‘waiter, waiter’ joke is an entire genre based on complaints, but the set-up is just an excuse for some absurdism and wordplay: we’re not laughing at things that we actually complain about. Even the joke about the people in the restaurant turns on the ridiculousness of the way we sometimes complain, not a serious complaint in itself. In order to be funny, joking about the things we complain about has to avoid getting too close to the things which really make us angry. The limiting case of this is found in much contemporary stand-up comedy. This often touches on serious issues that really do bother people. For example, in one of his routines Chris Tucker was going through a skit in which he imagined Michael Jackson as a pimp, and the mainly black audience was screaming with laughter. Then he segued into more serious territory.
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