So what’s so funny about sex? The question has haunted me for weeks.
First there was the Monica Lewinsky story. Have you tried having a serious discussion with colleagues about President Clinton’s alleged relationship with the person he calls “that woman”? How long can you keep it up (oops) before you all burst out laughing?
Late-night comics can hardly believe their good fortune. Topical humor is not easy when the economy is good, crime is down and polls show most people are feeling rosier toward politicians than they have in 30 years. But then along came Monica and suddenly it seems like everybody cares about politics again.
One student of this arcane area of popular culture, Robert Lichter, president of the Washington-based Center for Media and Public Affairs, found that Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and Bill “Politically Incorrect” Maher told 729 jokes about Clinton’s sex life in the first five months of 1998.
By contrast, Lichter said they told about 250 such jokes in all of 1997.
The explosion of Monica jokes was shoved aside only by Viagra, which has led to a similar explosion of 132 jokes since its availability in March. The most popular subset of Viagra jokes, Lichter said, appear to be connected to Bob Dole, who warmed the hearts of many by happily revealing that he had tried it and it worked!
Since then, many critics have complained that the quality of public discourse has begun to break down. I agree. Try having a serious discussion about Viagra with a straight face.
One recent example, reported in The New York Times, occurred in a very serious place, Partners Community Health Care, a network of doctors and hospitals in Boston. Dr. Tom H. Lee, the network’s medical director recalled what happened at a meeting when doctors and executives learned that one health insurance company would cover the cost of 13 Viagra pills a month.
After a moment of dead silence, a senior executive in her 40s said, “That seems like a lot.”
Guess what happened next? Yes, Lee said, everyone burst out laughing.
“Maybe for you!” Someone called out.
“They must not have young children!” said another.
Isn’t it reassuring to know that when you get some of the nation’s smartest health experts behind closed doors, they talk just like sophomores in a fraternity house?
So why is sex so funny? I have a few ideas:
1. We humans have dirty minds. It is like the famous Woody Allen line about the guy who, when asked if he thought sex was dirty, responded with something like, “Yes, if you’re doing it right.”
No, sex would not be nearly as funny were it not, in so many ways, a taboo topic. The first time we experience sex talk as fun is during early adolescence. We are thrilled to be able to talk about it without getting our mouths washed out with soap and that thrill never leaves many of us.
2. Puns. Sex talk has great pun potential. It is nearly impossible to plunge into this topic without erupting in double entendres.
3. Sex is absurd and the absurd gets laughs. Outside of its end product, which is the survival of the species, everything else about sex is pretty ludicrous. The more you think about it, the sillier it seems. But if you don’t think about it at all, you might wind up procreating new generations of the species you hadn’t counted on.
4. Surprise! The element of surprise is essential to all punch lines. We are surprised by sex talk because we were not expecting taboos to fall by the wayside.
5. Gotcha! Yes, we do not expect certain people to have sex or, at least, to reveal that they do. Topping the list of examples is, of course, our parents. Most of us can never comprehend our parents having sex. I still can’t. I think I was created by immaculate conception.
6. Gotcha again! We always are of a double mind about whether public or private figures should have sex. Behind our parents come other important figures, like the president, sports stars and star sportscasters. Clinton, Marv Albert, Frank Gifford and countless other jocks have shattered that idea. But why is it funny? Probably because we enjoy watching the high and mighty shown to be no more resistant to temptation than the rest of us.
But is it good for us? Americans may need to be more candid and open about sex. But, as Lichter observed, “We keep getting more open about sex without being more honest about it. The fact that there are so many sex jokes show how ambivalent we are.”
Indeed. We laugh, but it’s a nervous laughter. Jokes are a socially acceptable way to talk about that which we are not supposed to be talking about. Then, in talking about it we make it more acceptable.
Perhaps then we can have more serious discussion about previously taboo topics. Some people fear that if we get too serious about sex we’ll take the fun out of it. I don’t. I think sex will always be funny. If it is done right.
