Perceived injustice: one of my oldest triggers

[cmdr_zoom]

Recent strips of PvP have reminded me how much of (not all, but many kinds of) comedy involves people being stupid, and other people getting hit with the consequences of that stupidity despite having no real ability to alter or mitigate it.

I have a very strong (righteous, even) belief that people shouldn't be blamed and punished for something they didn't do. That's the ideal, which the real world falls short of constantly. Usually, "shit lands on everyone" is one of those things I can mostly pretend to ignore; but like a toothache, sometimes it flares up and pains me consciously.

("Of course, if the planet were equitable, I'd still have my old job." Thanks, Eddie.)

also, what the hell am I doing up at 5 am?

Comments

[jengagne.livejournal.com]

Speaking as the sibling of somebody with dwarfism (twoflower, who also wrote about this) this particular thread in PvP hasn't bothered me at all.

But yeah, a lot of comedy is victim-based.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

That's not what sets me off about this run. (Obviously, that's going to be an issue closer to your heart.) Rather it's that Brent - who, it must be admitted, often deserves what he gets - doesn't here. First he's harassed, then he gets splashed with the result of Francis' last of clue and/or taste.

Yes, I know. That assertion (I think I first encountered it in Stranger in a Strange Land) so bothered me that I went looking for some form of comedy that didn't rely on "bad stuff happens to someone." I finally found it in non-sequiturs, surreality and wordplay (as exemplified by the likes of Monty Python and Tom Lehrer).

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

I found that so uncomfortable and unpleasant, I'm seriously considering not reading anymore.

[jengagne.livejournal.com]

Arguably he doesn't deserve the continued random panda attacks either... in both cases some relatively minor initial encounter resulted in an apparently endless series of attacks.

(I guess the panda attacks could also be considered non-sequitur.)

I suppose I don't get so philosophically bothered by bad things happening to fictional people. (See also, pretty much every RP session I've ever been involved with.)

The assertion that comedy relies on "bad stuff happens to someone" could be applied equally well to various forms of drama, eh? ... hmm, this calls for my love/blood/rhetoric icon!