Lets Talk About Jokes

Today is April 1st, a day, of course, for jokes. This year the conversation about appropriate jokes (and appropriate responses to jokes) started a little early thanks to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars.

Now, I want to make clear that the LegalMind Society does not condone violence. In our opinion, Will Smith’s actions were wrong. And while plenty of people have made that point, it is worth making that point again.

And while some people are talking about the joke that caused this, not enough are pointing out that Chris Rock was wrong to make such a joke. The joke in question was poking fun at Jada Pinkett Smith over her baldness, which was caused by an auto-immune disease. And just as violence is wrong, it is also wrong to use someone’s chronic illness as the punchline of a joke. And that brings me back to April Fool’s Day.

Because too often mental illness is also used as a joke. It was certainly used as a joke after Britney Spears had a now infamous run in with paparazzi. Yet more than just celebrities deal with the fallout of mental health punch lines. Too often you hear about someone being ‘crazy’ or ‘nuts’ or going off to the ‘madhouse.’ All of this continues to happen, despite the fact that mental illness, and the hospitals that treat mental illness, are no laughing matter.

Even before becoming an advocate for mental health issues, I struggled to understand how such humor was funny to people. And now that I work to support and advocate for people living with mental illness, both within the legal community and society as a whole, I find it even harder to understand how people can laugh at the darkness that impacts millions of people’s lives. Mental illness and other forms of chronic illness should never be used as a April Fool’s day joke, or any other kind of joke. And hopefully, this year is the start of us turning away from such senseless senses of humor.