From time to time I get a cool chill that tells me our collective sense of humour is fading fast.
Last week I heard about a high school teacher in Toronto who has been dismissed after distributing some jokes to students as part of a stand-up comedy assignment.
It was for the students' drama class, and anyone who has ever heard a stand-up comedy routine, knows there is generally some material involved that garnishes some chuckles from its shock value. There is nothing wrong with this, and at a high school level, kids don't care what jokes are being told.
As someone who doesn't get offended by even the most horrific of jokes, I'm not the authority on whether a joke is appropriate or not.
It reminds me of a moment from the Americanized television series The Office, where Steve Carell's Michael Scott is disciplined for telling an "inappropriate" joke in the workplace. He replies, "There's no such thing as an appropriate joke. That's why it's a joke."
I am not a comedic genius by any stretch of the imagination. I probably haven't even received a pity chuckle for any of my semi-clever quips in this space, but I know when to laugh. I've always thought getting offended by a joke is a choice. It's not involuntary, and it's so much easier to simply laugh than to get hot under the collar.
I've been to high school, like many of you, and some pretty ridiculous things get said everyday. I said some pretty off-colour things in high school. I still do regularly, but high school kids can handle it. They are a pretty hardy bunch.
More recently I've coached some bantam hockey, kids who are about 14 years old. Every one of them could go swear for swear with me. As hockey players that was to be expected.
I have a comedian friend - Bobby Mair if you'd like to look up his Comedy Now special - and while his jokes are often bordering on what some would consider bad taste, he's a pretty funny guy who is making a living by making people laugh. Any one of his jokes would probably be considered morally dysfunctional in a school setting, but they're harmless. It would be healthier to laugh than it would be to reprimand a school official who booked him for an assembly.
This Toronto teacher wasn't using jokes to ridicule his students. That would be unprofessional. He was asking students to use some of the listed jokes as a launching pad for their theatrical comedy.
Our lives are serious enough. We don't need to go out of our way to quell the creative funny bones in our students. There is no such thing as an appropriate joke, not a good one anyway, but if we aren't going to give young people the freedom to explore the possibilities of humour, we're going to end up living in a very serious place.
There are many better ways for us to spend our time than be upset by jokes. Taking offence just sounds like the silliest thing since the Ministry of Silly Walks. Some of us could definitely use a lesson in not taking everything so seriously.
