If you read Time magazine, you may have recently seen the Ideas issue, which included a piece by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, commonly known as Key and Peele from the same-named comedy show. It is a fairly commonplace comedy piece, arguing the true cause of comedy is to create a world where we can all laugh, to avoid the pitfall of not making fun of people because we assume “that they’re too weak to take it.” Without mockery, society grinds to a halt. A whole world of ‘Yes Men’ is exactly what kills a healthy, popularly run society. Rather than be filled with hatred for those around us, the ability to mock allows us to continue on.
There will always be sensitive subjects that must be approached with caution and care. Key and Peele are seeking the great white whale — the “black lesbian dwarf with Down syndrome who’s in a wheelchair” — a conglomeration of groups that cannot be reached by their comedy, or rather, cannot be reached by their audience. But we do enjoy our freedom of speech in the United States, and we enjoy the ability to mock most everyone we want, utilizing our freedom to our opinions. However we must remember that as long as we want to have that freedom of speech, there will always be those who hold differing and often infuriating opinions.
The recently deceased Fred Phelps and the infamous Westboro Baptist Church are a clear example of a group with strongly differing opinions. They manage to upset both sides of the political spectrum, from LGBTQ groups to die-hard conservatives, for their protests at funerals. I applaud Aaron Jackson for his choice to paint his house with the colors of the rainbow directly across the street from the main base of the group. Personally, I am no fan of the message of the Westboro Baptist Church, but I do make a note to avoid being overly concerned with their actions. The Supreme Court made it clear in Snyder v. Phelps that while the actions and speech from the WBC may be “outrageous,” as long as it is conducted on public property, it is protected by the Constitution as free speech.
Rather than becoming obsessed over hateful speech, we should look for humor — including mockery — to ease the pain. As The Onion would remind us all, Fred Phelps was the man “widely credited with forever ending the gay rights movement in America.” Their message is cruel and rude, but it has had no tangible impact on U.S. society. It harms individual families, such as the aforementioned Snyder family, but merely being filled with hatred for a group does not help those families. The more vitriol we fling at groups such as the WBC, the better they thrive. Instead, we should remind the hurting families they are not alone and that their tormentors instead stand alone.
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