What’s Really Funny? By Keith L. Anderson, Ph.D. I love a good comedian. You know that comedian who can make me laugh so hard that I shed tears. The comedians who make me bust a gut are Richard Pryor (own all his albums), George Carlin (saw him in concert), and Kevin Hart (just added him to my list). I can’t remember any of them telling jokes to purposely belittle a real person. These comedians would create characters, such as Pryor’s ‘Mud-bone’. Years ago, I was wearing a straw cabana hat at Carlin’s show. I was sitting close enough to the stage that he wanted to use my hat to do one of his routines. Hart creates characters from his childhood and sometimes adulthood. Every time I get in my car with my son(s), I do the routine Hart talks about. The one where the older guy in his posse checks everything before starting the car. Then he asks, “You ready to go?” Then shoots his fingers towards him. The point I want to make is, those guys didn’t get laughs by being mean. They wanted us to laugh with them. They didn’t get laughs by insulting someone or group of people and have us laughing at someone. Years ago, I went to a Redd Foxx show at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California. Slappy White opened for Foxx. He was very funny. When Foxx came on, he immediately, started getting on this woman for being overweight. He was relentless. He even made fun of her husband for being with her. I decided to leave. I didn’t find Foxx’s routine funny. I understand that comedy has changed. I’m not for the cancel culture. But I’m also not for anyone insulting people and then hiding behind “it was only a joke”. I’m also not for people physically attacking people over words said to them. In my research days, I studied words and what teachers’ words could do to students. Words do hurt! Words are powerful. We must get past whether we have the freedom to say this or that. A great magician doesn’t really saw a person in half. Really sawing a person in half doesn’t take magical skill. The skillful magician makes us think the person is sawed in half. Society must get past whether we have the freedom to say this or that. We must ask ourselves, should hurting people ever be considered funny? For me, a good comedian creates comedy, from his or her imagination, not from the pain of others.