Alain De Botton's View Of The Humorists

The statement on de Botton’s view of the humorist can be considered both correct and incorrect. The humorist does indeed have a position as the voice of the people, but they also have a role as an entertainer. Alain de Botton’s wrote in his book Status Anxiety, “the role of the humorist and the satirical material they provide is essential to the functioning of society today” (Botton, Status Anxiety). Botton’s opinion of the humorists in today’s society is that they are the voice of the people, being allowed to say things that most people can’t or won’t say about their own lives. To do this, these humorists use many techniques, one of the more famous ones being the ever changing technique of satire. According to a quote from Northrop Fry’s
Anatomy of Criticism, the humorist needs two things to use satire “one is wit or humor founded on fantasy or a sense of the grotesque or absurd, the other is an object of attack”( Frye, Anatomy of Criticism).
Due to these requirements, the use of satire can be traced back decades all the way to the Middle Ages. In fact one of the earliest users of satire is the famed Geoffrey Chaucer in his most famous work The Canterbury Tales. Through this work, Chaucer shares with the reader his views on the changes in Medieval Times by using satire to insult and make fun of his observations. One such example of this can be found in the Pardoner’s Tale where Chaucer uses the character and satire to criticize the Church by having the Pardoner admit readily to cheating beggars out of their money. This story satirizes the work that the clergy did at that time, having the Pardoner selling forgiveness to the highest bidder instead of requiring repentance. People still share views like this about the Catholic Church, and even more humorists still use many forms, topics, and controversies about the Catholic Church as well as various forms of satire to express these views; though they have evolved them from what they were in Chaucer’s time to fit the modern age. One such topic pertaining to
the Catholic Church that humorists tend to satirize today is the allowance of same sex couples and marriages in the Catholic Church.
This controversy has been a huge issue for a while now. Some parishes of the catholic community have embraced modern times and are allowing same sex couples into the Catholic Church. But there are many who do not believe that something like this is holy and have gone to the point of attempting to excommunicate said couples and their families from the Catholic Church. Due to this use of satire, the humorist does in fact play a part in being a voice of the people; being allowed to express the thoughts the people either can’t or won’t express (Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales). But this is not the only role that is played by the humorist. In Chaucer’s time, the humorist may have only played the voice of the people; using satire to convey the general populations thoughts on specific matters. Today though, the humorist also plays the role of the entertainer to the people. A statement from a paper entitled The Power of Ridicule an Analysis of Satire says that “Satire is a powerful art form which has the ability to point out the deficiencies in certain human behaviors and the social issues which result from them in such a way that they become absurd,
even hilarious, … Satire also has the ability to protect its creator from culpability for criticism, because it is implied rather than overtly stated; in this way, it becomes a powerful tool for dissenters in difficult or oppressive political and social periods” (LeBouf, The Power of Ridicule: An Analysis of Satire) . Some humorists use satire to entertain through live entertainment only they can produce; such as the comedian Jeff Dunham whose ventriloquist and puppetry skills have entertained countless audiences. Other humorists use satire to produce features that can be enjoyed for all time by each generation. One form of this, which also proves de Botton’s statement both right and wrong, is music. With the styles of music constantly changing, the content used to make the lyrics for said “next big hits” are constantly changed as well. Yes some songs are written to satirize things such as the way people look, how they dress, physical fitness, or even love lives. But not all music is like this, there are also songs that use satire but are written for pure entertainment and not to criticize anything. An example of this would be the song currently being sung by the Providence High School men’s choir Manly Men.
Composed by Kurt Knecht, the song uses the stereo type of singing not being a man’s activity and turns it around. Instead the song use satire to describe men’s choirs like to sing but at the same time gives thanks that they are not women’s choirs and then goes into descriptions of how the four separate sections of the men’s choir are both better and worse than the others. The part sung by the second tenors for example, states how the members of that section are not “choir geeks” and though they cannot hit notes as high as the first tenors, they still wished to be loved by the audience just as much. These lyrics don’t make fun of anything but the people singing it and shows how they actually embrace these facts and limitations.
From this view de Botton’s statement can be considered as correct as it is incorrect. The role of humorist is not just to be the voice of the people but also to be an entertainer. The job of the humorist being to use satire to express the inner most thoughts people are afraid of saying while at the same time finding ways to do so in a way that is entertaining to others.