Beyond Empathy: Sarah Silverman and the Limits of Comedy

girls is an unusual challenge; using a graphic account of oral sex to revisit the common anxiety grown children feel about falling into their parents’ unappealing patterns of emotional response is astoundingly original. Taken together, these jokes deviate radically from widely shared assumptions and concerns about inter–generational influence. Three other qualities, frequently combined, define the humor Silverman is bringing to her sitcom: a reworking of the Jewish American Princess (JAP) stereotype, an anti-PC instinct for mocking minority groups, and an anti-sentimental response to suffering and religion. Again, from Jesus is Magic: “The best time to have a baby is when you’re a black teenager.” “When God gives you AIDS—and God does give you AIDS, by the way— make lemonAIDS.” “[My niece] called me up and she’s like, ‘Aunt Sarah, did you know that HitlerkilledsixtymillionJews.’AndIcorrected her and I said, ‘You know, I think he’s responsible for killing six million Jews.’Andshesaid,‘Ohyeah!Sixmillion! I knew that but seriously, I mean, what’s the difference?’ ‘Uh, the difference is sixty million is unforgivable, young lady!’ ” A hundred years ago Henri Bergson noted that humor frequently requires a “momentary anesthesia of the heart” that numbs the listener’s pity for the comic butt. Elaborating this idea, 88 T I K K U N W W W. T I K K U N . O R G S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 F ew comedians test comic theory as forcefully as Sarah Silverman, who recently brought the outrageous shtick she has been honing for years to a Comedy Central sitcom that seems both conventional and odd. Conventional because it revolves around a fixed set of friends who make up a sitcom family. Odd because, while smiling and winking , Silverman’s character expresses not just wrongheaded or irritating but contemptible ideas and impulses. Blinded by narcissism, unrestrained by decorum, and hopelessly unable to love or be loved, Silverman’s character raises questions about the violation of social norms and the functions of shock comedy. In this year of laughing dangerously, one need not be Don Imus to wonder how she gets away with her sugarcoated version of empathy-starved humor. Show Silverman a taboo about sex, excrement, or the body and she’ll show you how it can be transgressed in a punch line. Examples from Jesus is Magic, her 2005 feature film, include: “Strippers should be role models for little girls, if only for the fact that they wax their assholes.” “I was licking jelly off of my boyfriend’s penis and all of a sudden I’m thinking, ‘Oh My God, I’m turning into my mother!’ ” By demonstrating that dirty jokes can provide moments of liberation from sexual repression, Freud went some way toward explaining the appeal of this material . But these jokes are not only naughty; each is also imaginative and clever. Figuring out how strippers could possibly serve as role models for little Beyond Empathy: Sarah Silverman and the Limits of Comedy TheSarahSilvermanShow ComedyCentral,2007 Commentary by Paul Lewis AP PHOTO/MATT SAYLES CULTURE [HUMOR] 9.Culture:MA 2007 8/7/07 9:40 AM Page 88 one–night stand with God. At any moment , but especially when expressing the most edgy ideas, she is likely to break out into a ballad or show tune that provides inappropriate, and therefore amusing, treacle. An example of this comes early in the first episode, when Silverman, sweetly and with great sincerity , sings the following lyric to a little boy on a tricycle: I really like my life and I’ll also tell you what/If I find a stick, I’ll put it in your mama’s butt/And pull it out and stick the doody in her eye/And pull it out and stick the doody in her eye. Except for the infantile emphasis on poop, the show reminds one of sitcom precedents including the narcissism of a Jerry Seinfeld or Larry David, the bigotry of an Archie Bunker, the impulsiveness of a Homer Simpson, and the manic creativity of a Lucille Ball. At her best Silverman is edgy...