Look, I think Amy Schumer’s funny. When I spotted an essay online late Monday night ripping Schumer a new butthole over ugly, racist humor that makes her a few fast bucks but poisons the well of American comity, my reaction was, “Say wha’?” But I was half asleep. I figured the authors might be making good points I was too wiped out to appreciate, so I let it go.
I say apparently because their next sentence is not totally clear. I’m not sure which side of the humor divide it comes down on or whether the authors know themselves. What they write is this: “We can distance ourselves from the anger, from the harm, from the ideology, and from the hatred of the ‘extreme,’ but also find comfort in the same anger, ideology and hatred that is ‘just a joke.’”
Patton and Leonard allow Schumer to state a defense, but it’s paltry. “It is a joke and it is funny,” she insists. “I know because people laugh at it.”
