New Atheism’s Gender Problems
Can critical humorists help combat the sexism inherent to both religious and secular organizations?
Can critical humorists help combat the sexism inherent to both religious and secular organizations?
Humorists have served as the conscience of cultures ever since (and before) court jesters ridiculed omnipotent royalty for its hypocrisy, pomposity, and corruption. Punk continues to fulfill that essential social role in relation to the powers-that-be of the modern world.
If Alexei Sayle and Rik Mayall represented the Pistols/Clash in-your-face assault and battery side of British punk comedy, Ben Elton was its Elvis Costello, complete with geeky wide-rimmed glasses.
The college comedy deficit means that we are neither taught how to take a joke nor how to interpret one.
We may be one nation in America, but today we appear to be living on different planets, as we are divided by humor, among other things.
Sounding more like Christopher Hitchens than a lapsed Presbyterian from the 19th century, Mark Twain rips apart Testaments Old and New.