It’s Just a Joke — Why this defense of one’s self is fallacious

Jokes don’t always work, as Jim Emerson points out in “What’s a Rape Joke Anyway?”

Sometimes what is called a joke is an incredibly aggressive call for violence — “All I want for Christmas is White Genocide.”

Sometimes persons float bigotry and when there is backlash they ask for forgiveness and claim they were joking and didn’t intend to promulgate bigotry. Such as The New Republic in 2014 with “My Mayor Pete Problem.” The New Republic Editor then said: “The New Republic recognizes that this post crossed a line, and while it was largely intended as satire, it was inappropriate and invasive.”

Just last week Joseph Epstein wrote that Dr. Jill Biden should not call herself Doctor, despite a wide spread and widely supported convention of calling persons with her credentials Doctor. Under waves of criticism, he wrote via email to CNN that “No comment, apart from saying that I thought mine a lightly humorous piece, but I fear there isn’t much humor in the world, especially among the politically correct.” “

In many cases, writers wrote, utterers uttered, something that resulted in vast and consequential negative feedback. And in many cases, these persons then defended themselves as joking; and since it was a joke it doesn’t reflect their real opinion; while their real opinion remains unseen, and the declaration of humor is well after the offense.