I can't imagine anyone's watching The Big Bang Theory and not finding it extremely funny. It's a good show that occasionally makes viewers aware of what's new and exciting in scientific fields and introduces viewers to some of the great thinkers of our generation. You can probably guess, though, that I don't want to talk about any of that. Instead I want to talk about how in one episode that I watched recently (a re-run, I'm pretty sure) Penny mentions how she got a great manicure at a store that she thinks was a front for human trafficking. Once the joke was said and laughed at, the conversation moved on and human trafficking wasn't referenced again. Penny's saying that she got a great manicure, pausing, and then saying that she thinks the store was a front for human trafficking was, indeed, funny. If any of the characters said the same thing it would still have been funny. In fact, if any character in any show said the same thing the joke might still have been funny.
My first question is why someone's saying, "I got this great manicure at this place... and I think it's a front for human trafficking," is funny. My second question is whether or not a popular TV show's bringing up the joke is good or bad.
First of all, we all have to acknowledge that our society jokes about a good number of things that perhaps we should not joke about. For many of us, though, these jokes are what keep us sane. If we were not able to joke about the state of our government, about Catholic priests, about consumerism, etc. many of us would find this world way too depressing to survive. Jokes and laughter are survival mechanisms, no question. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, either. We need to be able to joke about the awful things in our world or we won't survive.
I've talked a lot, in private conversations, about the tendency some kids and even adults have in making bets or jokes that essentially are, "blah blah blah, and be my slave for a week." I don't know if that really constitutes a joke or anything so we have to be really careful with that type of language. Yet if we are joking around and don't mean anything by it, then we have to ask ourselves why we joke about slavery and human trafficking. If we laugh at and make these jokes and bets because there's something inherently funny about slavery to us, then we need to check ourselves before we wreck ourselves, as Ice Cube would say. Sometimes we grow up thinking certain things are funny and we have no idea why. That's okay... as long as we become aware that some things we grew up thinking are funny are not at all acceptable.
Ultimately, though, there's nothing inherently funny in slavery, and working out a joke about slavery that is funny requires more work than it's worth, so why do it? I still can't decide if The Big Bang Theory intended to raise awareness about human trafficking or if they were just taking advantage of a situation to make a funny. And that's the thing: intention is key. If we make jokes about human trafficking just to be funny then we are essentially arguing that there is something inherently funny about slavery when in fact there isn't. Just because human trafficking exists and is out there doesn't mean we can or should take advantage of it as a comedic situation.
On the other hand, if we insert jokes about human trafficking with the intention of raising awareness, then of course we're doing a good work. Yet if that's the case, we have to be careful. The fact that millions of people who might not have known about human trafficking now do because of a throw-away joke by Penny in The Big Bang Theory is a positive step, but there are some issues: some people may have missed it, or not understood the joke precisely because they don't know what human trafficking is; there was still no indication of why anyone should care about human trafficking. Penny seemed a little upset and nothing more. The whole situation would have been different if Penny had gone on to say, "Now I'm upset about this manicure. I shouldn't give money to traffickers. I should tell the authorities." More jokes could have been made that also outlined the appropriate emotions and actions to take in such a situation. Then millions of viewers would have certainly got a good education about human trafficking that they otherwise would not have received.
You know, at the end of the day, what I'm trying to say is that little comments like the one Penny made can make a huge difference. It's entirely possible now that many people think it's acceptable and funny to joke about human trafficking for no good reason, and in addition think that it's not their business to care about human trafficking as an evil in our world, and in addition think that it's okay to take advantage of the services of trafficked persons. It could have been possible, on the other hand, to educate millions of people on how to think and feel and act about human trafficking to make this a better world to live in and, because it's a popular comedy show, they wouldn't have even really noticed that they were receiving such an education. It's possible that The Big Bang Theory did a positive thing simply by mentioning human trafficking, but the joke as it was relied far too heavily on uneducated viewers to understand why the show did a good thing.
We all of us need to keep our eyes and ears open for such references of human trafficking so that we can point them out and talk about them when others do not, and so that we can avoid making the same mistake that The Big Bang Theory made.
