{"id":23591,"date":"2014-07-24T15:12:11","date_gmt":"2014-07-24T19:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=23591"},"modified":"2014-07-24T15:12:11","modified_gmt":"2014-07-24T19:12:11","slug":"a-good-joke-can-change-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/07\/24\/a-good-joke-can-change-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"A good joke can change the world"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe>\n<\/p>I have always believed that a good joke can change the world.<\/p>\nNow we have proof that it\u2019s true: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.avclub.com\/article\/mike-judge-says-office-space-helped-rid-world-flai-205913\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">\u201cOffice Space<\/em> helped rid the world of \u2018flair.'\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\u201cAbout four years after\u00a0Office Space<\/em>\u00a0came out, T.G.I. Fridays got rid of all that [button] flair, because people would come in and make cracks about it,\u201d [Mike] Judge recently told\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.deadline.com\/2014\/06\/mike-judge-silicon-valley-interview-making-of\/#more-743529\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Deadline<\/a><\/em>. \u201cOne of my ADs asked once at the restaurant why their flair was missing and they said they removed it because of that movie\u00a0Office Space<\/em>. So, maybe I made the world a better place.\u201d Indeed, now a chastened, more mature T.G.I Fridays no longer forces its waiters to talk about their flair, instead allowing them \u2014 and their grateful patrons \u2014 a side order of dignity to go with their bacon mac \u2018n\u2019 cheese bites.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nGranted, in the grand scheme of things, the fact that waitstaff at chain restaurants were required to don \u201cflair\u201d in an aggressive display of mandatory cheer and (literally) uniform individuality was not one of the gravest injustices besetting humanity.<\/p>\nStill, though, the end of such demeaning work requirements does, as Judge says, help make \u201cthe world a better place.\u201d Thousands of people stuck in lousy dead-end jobs now have slightly less-lousy dead-end jobs.<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=U5YClmS3umk\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-23593\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2014\/07\/Flair22.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"473\" height=\"262\"><\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\nBut let\u2019s not get lost in the particulars of this case, what\u2019s important here is the confirmation of the general principle: A good joke really can change the world.<\/p>\nWe have other examples that this is true but we don\u2019t always notice them because the effect of good jokes usually tends to be defensive. The craftspeople at some of our finest joke workshops (the guilds of Stewart, Colbert, Onion<\/em>, Toast<\/em>, Silverman, etc.) expend a lot of energy playing a kind of whack-a-mole game in which prophylactic jokes prevent the world from getting worse. That\u2019s a harder thing to identify or measure, but the effect is real.<\/p>\nConsider, for example, that in 2009, the possibility of President Sarah Palin did not seem wholly preposterous the way it does today. That was the work of thousands of jokes \u2014 some perfectly crafted, some kind of sloppy and off-target. The cumulative effect of all those jokes helped to make the world a better place \u2014 or to prevent it from getting worse in one particular way, which amounts to something like the same thing.<\/p>\nThe relatively modest achievement of Judge\u2019s Office Space<\/em> joke is a reminder that this isn\u2019t easy. Judge crafted a precise and devastating joke and then was able to deliver that joke through an expensive, high-profile platform. Alas, most of us do not have access to such platforms, and we can\u2019t hire someone as skilled and popular as Jennifer Aniston to ensure that our jokes are so perfectly delivered.<\/p>\nBut pay attention to Judge\u2019s description of the process<\/em> that unfolded over time. It took several years from the release of Office Space<\/em> before the last buttons were removed and partial dignity was restored to these workers. And it wasn\u2019t solely because of Judge and Aniston \u2014 it was due to thousands of people all over the country repeating and embellishing and riffing on the original joke.<\/p>\nIt takes a village. The good news is that we now have powerful new technology \u00a0and new tools for disseminating the best jokes \u2014 Twitter and other social media. Our best jokes can now be spread, amplified, applied and reapplied with great cumulative power.<\/p>\nEven so, could even the best jokes ever manage to eliminate something more serious than the indignity of \u201cflair\u201d? Could\u00a0even a\u00a0perfect<\/em>\u00a0joke ever hope to make a difference when it comes to serious, pervasive, enduring structural injustices like patriarchy, plutocracy or racism?<\/p>\nWe\u2019ll never know unless we try.<\/p>\nHere\u2019s John Oliver, doing his part, attacking the obscene injustice of American mass incarceration with what might really be one of the most potentially powerful weapons we have \u2014 a bunch of good jokes:<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Prison: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_Pz3syET3DY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I have always believed that a good joke can change the world. Now we have proof that it\u2019s true: \u201cOffice Space helped rid the world of \u2018flair.’\u201d \u201cAbout four years after\u00a0Office Space\u00a0came out, T.G.I. Fridays got rid of all that [button] flair, because people would come in and make cracks about it,\u201d [Mike] Judge recently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class-warfare"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>A good joke can change the world<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have always believed that a good joke can change the world. Now we have proof that it's true: "Office Space helped rid the world of 'flair.'" \u201cAbout\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/07\/24\/a-good-joke-can-change-the-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A good joke can change the world\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have always believed that a good joke can change the world. Now we have proof that it's true: "Office Space helped rid the world of 'flair.'" \u201cAbout\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/07\/24\/a-good-joke-can-change-the-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-24T19:12:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2014\/07\/Flair22.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/07\/24\/a-good-joke-can-change-the-world\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/07\/24\/a-good-joke-can-change-the-world\/\",\"name\":\"A good joke can change the world\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-24T19:12:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-07-24T19:12:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"I have always believed that a good joke can change the world. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A good joke can change the world","description":"I have always believed that a good joke can change the world. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}