| Ethics à la Letterman
Is this The Ethicist to whom so many entrust their dilemmas? Where is the Ph.D., the dissertations on Kant, stem cells, and genocide? If not the academic type, surely he has a firm religious foundation, then? Being raised as a Reform Jew, Cohen acknowledges, helped shape his moral outlook. But then again, he hasn't entered a synagogue--minus the occasional lifecycle ceremony--since his confirmation. What makes Cohen suited for the post is what he calls rigorous training in the art of "ethical comedy." His school, he says, was his long stint writing for David Letterman. "We [comedy] writers were always meant to understand that there were certain ways of doing things," explains Cohen. "You don't attack people for what they are, you only attack people for what they do. Which is to say you shouldn't make fun of someone for having a goofy looking nose, because they have no control over that. But you can make fun of them for invading Cambodia, because that's something they choose to do, its volitional. That seemed to me a moral approach to comedy." Some of Cohen's co-workers didn't care as much for ethics. In his first years at Letterman's late-night show, Cohen shared an office with a joke writer whose humor would occasionally devolve into racial stereotypes. When Cohen objected, his officemate would respond, "It's just a joke." "If you think it's just a joke," Cohen would snap back, "why do you have this job?" It made Cohen want to throw the guy out the window, he says. Comedy is generally not taken to be a serious art form, and certainly not one that has much to do with ethics. But Cohen sees it differently. "The opposite of funny isn't serious. The opposite of funny is solemn. There's nothing trivial about being funny. Every joke is an assertion about the world. It's important that what you're saying is how you see the world and that you yourself believe it." In his latest incarnation as a writer on ethics, Cohen retains the same sense of humor--and purpose. For example, in a recent installment of his column, he sarcastically referred to "Chicken Soup for the White Supremacist's Soul" (a parody of the popular book series). This was not to plug racist books, but rather to caution us about the ways we deal with objectionable, hateful material in our feel-good culture. Ethics à la Letterman |