Consequences of Laughter: Reflections on Performing Comedic Self-Deprecation and Reacting to Deprecation in General

Abstract

In this autoethnographic essay, the author draws on his experiences as a Chinese immigrant in Canada to reflect on how they shaped his style of comedy and how they revealed the limitations of self-deprecating humor, particularly when it is used as a response to jokes that imply discriminatory worldviews. While a self-deprecating response can steal the laugh from the person telling a derogatory joke, its outcomes are not always certain. Studies of audience responses to comedy have indicated that the presence or absence of laughter can be seen as an affirmation or rejection of the ideas embedded in the jokes, suggesting how, when self-deprecation succeeds in provoking laughter, it runs the risk of perpetuating the harmful ideas it aims to counteract. The author examines his own confrontations with racist humor alongside accounts of similar situations involving Asian comedians living in the West, such as Ryan Higa and Joe Wong, to illustrate the dilemma of self-deprecating humor as well as the potential personal and professional consequences for those who employ it.

Keywords:

• self-deprecation
• laughter
• humor
• choice and consequence
• autoethnography

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Billig, Laughter and Ridicule, 192.

2 Billig, Laughter and Ridicule, 193–194.

3 Limon, Stand-Up Comedy in Theory, 12.

4 Smith, Comedy and Critique, 13.

5 Pérez and Greene, “Debating Rape Jokes,” 267.

6 Bemiller and Schneider, “It’s Not,” 463.

7 Pérez and Greene, “Debating Rape Jokes.”

8 Pérez and Greene, “Debating Rape Jokes,” 266.

9 Pérez and Greene, “Debating Rape Jokes,” 267.

10 Higa, How to Write Good, 100.

11 Higa, How to Write Good, 125.

12 Higa, How to Write Good, 130.

13 Higa, How to Write Good, 128.

14 Higa, How to Write Good, 128.

15 Wong, “Joe Wong’s Birthday Wish.”

16 Higa, How to Write Good, back cover.

17 Bemiller and Schneider, “It’s Not,” 463.

18 Pérez and Greene, “Debating Rape Jokes,” 266.

19 Pérez and Greene, “Debating Rape Jokes,” 271.

20 Gilbert, “Performing Marginality,” 320, 319.

21 Ford, “Effects of Sexist Humor,” 1094.

22 Pérez and Greene, “Debating Rape Jokes,” 271.

23 Pérez and Greene, “Debating Rape Jokes,” 272.

24 Janssen, “Limits to Expression,” 32–33.

25 Khalil, “Australia Demands China Apologise.”

26 Paner, “Marginalization,” 10–12.

27 Paner, “Marginalization,” 13.

28 Paner, “Marginalization,” 12.

29 “Jackie Chan (Full Interview).”

30 “Jimmy O. Yang.”

31 Paner, “Marginalization,” 24–25.

32 “Jackie Chan on George Stroumboulopoulos.”

33 “Jackie Chan on George Stroumboulopoulos.”

34 Shen, “Video.”