Sarah Silverman — You don’t have to say word, she’ll say it for you
Jinhyeok Kim medium.com
Don’t you sometimes wonder if you can everything that’s on your mind from the dumbest thought to the darkest thoughts, forgetting about the consequences and any backlashes you might experience…
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Medium
Don’t you sometimes wonder if you can everything that’s on your mind from the dumbest thought to the darkest thoughts, forgetting about the consequences and any backlashes you might experience? People have tried to find solutions to relieve their antisocial thoughts and desires. Stand-up comedy suggests a brilliant way to sublimate these thoughts. When a comedian comically expresses unacceptable thoughts to the audience, they do not have a choice but to laugh it off. In this process, the comedian’s process gives vicarious satisfaction to the audience, and the audience relieves their thoughts with a laughter.

Sarah Silverman is a unique storyteller, giving vicarious satisfaction to the audience. She is openly discusses sensitive topics with a sarcastic, yet innocent tone. Without any hesitation, she delivers her words filled with social satire and unacceptable thoughts.

“I went to the Gay Pride March this past summer. I’m not gay I just want to support. I had a blast. But I don’t want people to label me as straight or as gay. I just want people to look at me and see me as… white. I can say that. I totally used to go out with a guy who is half-black who broke up with me because I am a fucking loser. I just heard myself say that. That is the most pessimistic thing. I have the worst attitude. He is half-white and he broke up with me. The point is whether you’re black or white or Asian, deep down, but just those three, deep down we are the same. I don’t care if you think I am racist. Honestly, I’d rather just you think I’m thin, a thin racist; that’s more important to me.”

Reading only the transcript of the joke provokes confusion. However, Silverman’s performance, makes the joke meaningful and gets her point across to the audience. Her monotonous cynical tone suggest that she is not really expressing her thoughts by telling the joke but criticizing society’s stereotypes.

Her joke is not clearly developed in structure and she tends to jump around from one topic to another. However, every sentence she says is said with a clear purpose. She starts the joke with a premise that she wants to support homosexuality. The premise is followed by the counterpoint: she does not want to be labeled as straight or gay, but as white. Even though she is supportive to homosexuality, she identifies as different and favors to be labeled as white. Her counterpoint seems be an idiotic statement but it criticizes people’s way of supporting differences. By expressing that she wants to be labeled as white instead of straight or gay, even though she supports gays, she denounces the society’s tendency to stay in the comfort zone. They are fond of the idea of supporting differences but they fail to identify and sympathize with the differences. At this point, the audience unknowingly laughs to the irony of the joke that reflects themselves.

The counterpoint leads the joke from the topic of homosexuality to racism. The joke escalates as she introduces her half-black ex-boyfriend and corrects the description of her ex as half-white, blaming herself as pessimistic. She keeps on building on the topic of racism furthermore: “whether you’re black or white or Asian,… but just those three, deep down we are the same.” Then, she finishes her joke with a simple, yet disturbing punchline: “I’m a thin racist. That’s more important to me.” In the second part of her joke, she criticizes societal stereotypes on race. She states that calling her ex-boyfriend as half-black is pessimistic, latently regarding that being half-black is an inferior human characteristic. As she mentions the three races, and only those three, she criticizes the society’s limited scope of viewing different races. Her punchline “I’m a thin racist; that’s more important to me” wraps up her joke by highlighting the society’s deceiving hypocrisy in supporting minorities.

She extends her joke to other subjects in different cultures. She also talks about how thin skinned and sensitive she is to the problems in the world such as starving children in Africa and their big bellies and their flies. Despite her sensitivity, she displays a lack of knowledge in her concerns about African children. She states that one and two-year-old children are 9 months pregnant and that she does not give money because she doesn’t want them to spend it on drugs.

African children’s condition of swollen stomachs is called Kwashiorkor. It is caused by malnutrition of protein in the diet and causes body parts to be swell with fluid. This condition can be treated by sufficient consumption of protein, which means that African children can be free from this condition by donation. Her remark about donation reflects the society’s pessimistic view of donation. Even though African children do not have access to drugs or any kind of substance misuse, she expresses her sarcastic and idiotic discomfort in giving. As the audience understands that her excuse is invalid and unreasonable, they are suggested to view donating as something other than an encouragement of substance abuse.

Sarah continues to talk about other cultures and about adoption of Chinese children. She says that if she ever has a kid it will be an adopted Chinese boy. She also mentions that in China the girls are useless. Her joke about Chinese children reveals current problems in China: Child labor in developed cities and disfavor of girls in the Chinese culture.

By expressing that Chinese girls are useless and imposing that Chinese boys are useful, she reveals China’s problem of child labor. Unlike other developing countries, China seems to be free from child labors due to the Chinese government’s censorship about child labor statistics; however, there are still visible problems in China. It was revealed that clothing factories in China have been using child labor force to reduce cost. More than 1,000 apparel manufacturers in Changshu have been using children under 16, which is defined as a child laborer by the Chinese government. This mistreatment of children caused even a death of a 15-year-old boy in Wenshan, Yunnan. It was reported that he worked at least 28 days a month, working more than 12 hours a day. He was also a victim of constant beating from his boss as a punishment of misbehavior. Children in China are abused, and Sarah Silverman was able use her joke to hint at this problem in China.

Her remark of Chinese girls being useless also criticizes China’s patriarchal culture and its one-child policy. In Chinese culture, particularly in the rural areas, male children are preferred as they are subjected to inherit their family name and property. The Chinese culture expects the male children to take care of their elderly parents as well. However, the one-child policy limited the families to have only one kid to reduce the skyrocketing population growth in China. This policy created many problems. This made female children undesirable and useless in the Chinese Culture. Abortion rate of female fetuses increased and girls were abandoned or placed in orphanages. Due to the high number of abandoned girls in China, orphans were adopted to other countries, including the US. This increased adoption of Chinese girls in the US led to the notion that Chinese girls are useless.