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Jon Ronson has e xplored this p henomenon in, S o You’ve humour, but deg ener a t es in t o a dir g e enc omp assing p er sonal
B e en P ubl icly S hamed , in w hic h the case of Justine S ac c o is tr auma, victimhood, and righ t eous ang er; all in an a tt emp t t o
e xamined as a p ar adigm case of the sort of c ondemna tion question and de-c onstruct c omedy. A lthough p erhap s valuable as
described. S ac c o made a joke via Twitt er on the t op ic of AIDS c on fessional p erformanc e, ap p rop ria ting one’s p er sonal tr auma as
in Africa. T he p remise w as t o mock r acist a ttitudes t o AIDS a means t o a ffect a critique of homop hobia and miso gyny – all the
in fection in Afr ica by adop ting tha t p er sp ective with irony. while doing so in the sinc erest t erms with only ironic asides here
S ac c o w as ridiculed online, and even tually had her iden tity and there – is t o ignore c omedy in f avour of the p olitic al. Nann e tte
revealed be fore being p eremp t orily sacked f rom her job as a may suc c eed as a w or k of mor al didacticism where the p er sonal is
PR Executive. Such episodes bring t o mind hist oric al c ases of used in p ur suit of the p olemical, but as p iec e of c omedy it f ails
justic e by mob where hear say and outr ag e overruled evidenc e for mistaking e thical earnestness for a c omedic virtue. B ut the
and even-handedness. Woke critic ap p lauds Nan e tte for its c onver sa tion of stand-up from
C onsider the c on trover s y surrounding the p op song, the c omic t o the mor alistic, insisting tha t art and c ulture ough t t o
B l urred L ines . Taken in isola tion, B lurred L in es is just ano ther be rec onc ep tualise d ac c ording t o the Woke p ar adigm tha t loca t es
e xamp le of the f ro thy R’n’B c lub music with the usual clichés aesthe tic value in adherenc e t o do gma.
of louche lyric s and macho p osturing, c omp ounded by a music We c ome t o the fi gure t o whic h Wokeness fixes itself in
video with all the a tt endan t visual c lichés of tha t g enre. op position: the W hit e Man. W ho is the W hit e Man ac c ording t o
G r an t ed, the title and re f r ain of the song may have sug g est ed the w oke? He is the reason and cause of r acial big o try and t o
a troubling ambiguity, but no thing t o w ar r an t the ac c usa tion whom the culp ability for all soc ie tal and cultur al ills must be
of ‘ r ap ey.’ B ut of c our se, the z ealo ts of Wokeness c ondemned a ttribut ed. He is a t the ap e x of a r acial hier archy, namely whit e
this p iec e of flee ting p op as an e xamp le of r ape culture; it w as sup remac y, whic h he has erect ed and of which he is chie f bene fi -
subsequen tly banned from being p layed across Univer sity of ciary. T he W hit e Man is the w or st kind of man: the man whose
London p remises by a vo t e of tha t institution’s studen t union. se xism is t o be isola t ed and called out in distinction from the
T hough I do no t deny the e xist enc e of miso gy ny in much se xism f rom all o ther kinds of men as t he anima ting and sustaining
he t erose xual mores, t o c lassify a p op song p erfor med by forc e of miso gy ny.
middle-ag ed men assuming an adolesc en t sensibility as an T he W hit e Man functions as the B eelz ebub for the Woke; the
e xemp lar of this menac e is t o stre t c h the p lausibility of r ap e embodimen t of degr ada tion and f alleness; the origin of c orrup tion
culture t o absurd lengths. Works like B lurred L in es are t o be and iniquity in the w orld. T here fore, whit e men must ac c ep t their
ridiculed, no t c ensored. guilt and make p enit enc e for their wrongs, chie fly in the form of
O f c our se, iniq uit ous figures such as R. Kelly and M ichael self-c ensor ship on ma tt er s of iden tity and p ublic ac ts of
Jackson ough t t o be dis gr ac ed for their crimes, but this self-e xc oria tion (via Twitt er, of c our se).
shouldn’t e xt end t o marking their w orks as p rohibit ed. A rt W hy the W hit e Man? B ecause like all s y st ems of irr a tionality,
should be f ree from mor alsing, for artistic merits are so in w okeness reduc es the c omple xity of social rela tions and its
vir tue of aesthe tic c onsider a tions, no t mor al ones. causally unde t ermined na ture t o one de fining cause. T he Woke
A nd w e have ye t t o e xp lore the nadir of c ultur al believe tha t er adica ting whit e and male p rivileg e along with o ther
Wokeness; for tha t, w e must turn t o c omedy, sp ec ifi cally s y st ems of discrimina t ory r anking will elimina t e the harms
stand-up c omedy. I rreverenc e and a kind of sc andalising eng endered by such p rejudic es; such a p ro gr amme c an only be
candour have been char act eristic of an esp ecially resonan t, a ffect ed through the cultur al and p olitic al mar ginalisa tion of the
aesthe tic ally valuable c omedy. Examp les such as Mon ty W hit e Man. B ut t o take this stanc e is t o ignore the in fluenc e of
Python’s L ife of B ria n and S ou th Park c ome t o mind; an ma t erial rela tions pertaining within a socie ty and the ec onomic
aesthe tic tha t is unc omp romising in its c ommitmen t t o c omedy or ganisa tion which de t ermines suc h rela tions. Moreover, I fear
for c omedy ’s sake. B ut this imp ulse i s, of c our se, a t odds with tha t Wokeness takes an op timistic vie w of human na ture, f ailing t o
the p revailing op inion, where c omedic merit must be regist er the malic e tha t seems t o mo tiva t e behaviour amongst
subordina t ed t o ideolo gy. C omedy must ensure tha t it strikes group s. I n short, sug g esting the re forma tion and tr ansforma tion of
the righ t t one p olitically. It must ‘ p unch up’ and never ‘do wn’ the W hit e Man in t o the Woke Man is a p seudo-p anac ea whose
– whe ther it strikes a funny no t e is ano ther ma tt er alt o g e ther. error lies in loca ting the origin of our p resen t maladies in a
W itness the p laudits given t o Hannah G adsby’s hour-long myopic p erc ep tion of socie ty and human p s yc holo gy.
stand-up special, Na nne tte . Nann e tte begins in the f amiliar
routine of self-dep reca tion and whimsical observa tional

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