I was very disappointed yesterday to see one of my all time favorite journalists Tweet an incredibly ageist viral video:
This pretty hilariousscreen.yahoo.com/sketchy-forwar…
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) February 14, 2013
The video is a brilliant parody on many levels and if you share Josh Marshall’s political persuasion (he’s the founder of the ferociously liberal and independent news site www.TalkingPointsMemo.com) you’ll find it scathingly funny. If you’re not particularly liberal, or if like us you’re sensitive to ageism, you’ll find it pretty damn offensive.
Parodies like this make us laugh for the same reason that stereotypes in general are so hard to eliminate — they’re based on an underlying truth. We all know someone like Betty or we’ve read about them in the news (just Google “official fired over racist email forward“).
Now, I’m not categorically opposed to making fun of old people — I abhor a sacred cow. I love humor, I love parody and in particular I love satire. Humor can be a powerful tool for cultural criticism and change. But there is a difference between biting satire and offensive parody.
The purpose of satire is to use critical humor to advocate political or moral change in society. Satirists from Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain to John Stewart have brilliantly used humor and exaggeration to point out the faults in our society.
Parody, on the other hand, is comedy for the sake of comedy — the only point is to make people laugh. Saturday Night Live is a parody — there is no agenda other than to make people laugh (if you disagree I’d argue making people laugh supersedes any other perceived agenda).
In both cases, humor can have powerful positive and negative consequences. Just as humor can point out our faults, it can be used to reinforce and legitimize them.
The irony in this video is that it contains both political satire and offensive parody. It uses satire to critique widespread racism in our society (again, see the Google search for evidence of this) but it pairs it with an extremely offensive and inaccurate parody of old people.
I’m not going to analyze the video for its inaccurate stereotypes, because duh, it’s a joke and I get that. I’d being lying if I said I didn’t LMAO.
What matters is that ageism is a very real and damaging problem in our culture. Older people are discriminated against, exploited, abused and neglected on a scale that dwarfs almost any other group. And humor that mocks old people and perpetuates negative stereotypes purely for the sake of a laugh has the effect of legitimizing and normalizing ageist behavior and discrimination.
I’m not advocating censorship, but it would have been so much more helpful if someone as powerful and influential as Josh Marshall could have called out the makers of this video rather than praised them.
What do you think?
Phil says
February 22, 2013 at 11:49 amHave I missed something?
I saw a depiction of an elderly women fully conversant with a computer AND an iphone and active both of them. I also saw an elderly women who was feisty and resourceful. Not only that, she was selecting emails specifically about Obama showing that she was fully cognisant and aware of the political situation. In fact, if anyone was shown up to be incompetent, it was the other three characters who seemed unable to setup a simple filter to flag and delete forwarded material from her.
How is that stereotypical? In fact, I was laughing at how the grandma was running rings around everyone else
More videos showing old people in control and learning new skills, please
Kavan Peterson, Editor, ChangingAging.org says
February 22, 2013 at 11:58 amHa, I love it Phil! Perhaps ageism is in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps my reaction was patronizing. I love having readers open my eyes to a different perspective.
Margit novack says
February 15, 2013 at 9:16 pmThis is about addiction. I dont think there is anything funny about addiction. Why would he suggest it is how “old people think.”
Marti Weston says
February 15, 2013 at 5:08 pmThere are many other ways and so many other characters of all ages that this video could have focused on, so it’s really too bad that the creators chose an elder as the individual with the problem. I’d go so far as to say it’s not even a parody — just a slam at people who have trouble understanding today’s new connected culture because they grew up in a mostly unconnected world. Sadly, I think lots of elders have been given computers and other digital tools by family members without the necessary support to help them understand the (brave) new world they are joining.
To make fun of individuals, who are digital immigrants but still eager to develop digital communication skills and connect with friends and family, is distasteful and ageism at its worst. I have lots more to write, but I think I’ll head on over to my blogs — rarely do I have a subject that fits on both of them — rather than fill up the Changing Aging comment section.
Marcia Barhydt says
February 15, 2013 at 4:31 pmA few years ago, I wrote an article titled “Old Jokes”, meaning jokes about old people. Here’s the last paragraph of that piece and it should tell you how I feel about offensive stuff like this.
“If we realize now that jokes about people from other heritages are racist and discriminatory, if we realize now that jokes about other religions are intolerant and discriminatory, if we realize now that jokes about the opposite gender are sexist and discriminatory, the why don’t we realize that hokes about older women and men are ageist and discriminatory?
Richard Ambrosius says
February 15, 2013 at 3:45 pmAgeism with a political agenda…my what a creative application. Thanks for calling foul on this one. Not surprisingly, none of the comments on the posting site pointed to the blatant ageism, but rather renforced it. I found it even more telling that a paradoy on forwarding was forwarded to Bill. By all means, let’s redo the parody with a young blonde, a minority or someone in a wheel chair. I doubt anyone would mind as long as the focus was on forwarding. Thanks also for pointing our the political leanings of the creator, which made the ageism almost more apalling.
While forwarding is frustrating, it really doesn’t take me andy longer to delete emails from the chronic forwarders than it doe those pitching male enhancement, steaks, insurance, telling me about the trip I won, etc. etc. etc. I am thinking this was just another creative way to get a political message to many people…and why not make fun of older people in the process. It works for major media, situation comedies and Taco Bell.
Gaea Yudron says
February 15, 2013 at 2:30 pmWhat a stupid film clip! Not funny and certainly ageist….”how old people think”….yuck….
Judith Konopaski says
February 15, 2013 at 12:04 pmI may be way off-base, but I believe it is unfortunate that an “older” person was shown in this parody because I DO find obsessive forwarding to be a problem and I can see the satire and humor in this. Using an older person to make a point raised issues of aegism. I think this could be re-done with a generic person and still contain pertinent satire. ps, I am near the age of the woman in that parody.
Kavan Peterson, Editor, ChangingAging.org says
February 15, 2013 at 2:06 pmI couldn’t agree more Judith. I know a few people guilty of sending bigoted email forwards and none of them are “old” per se. Age is not the common denominator in this scenario — it’s bigotry. Like I said, the creators of this video were going for cheap laughs based on inaccurate stereotypes. That’s what makes it so ageist.