A Question of Propriety: When Play Meets Seriousness

Stephen Colbert recently spoke on behalf the United Farm Workers (UFW) in an address to Congress on "Protecting America's Harvest." The hearing was meant to acknowledge concerns about farm worker jobs as well as the sustainability of America's largest industry: agriculture. Serious stuff, to be sure. Colbert, acting in (parodic) character, delivered a pointed speech.

To put it simply, a number of people (House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer in particular) expressed their displeasure over the speech--not because it mocked many of the fundaments undergirding the argument that undocumented workers are stealing American jobs (though it did mock them), but rather because it did so with such dead-on exactitude. There is, of course, the obvious question as to the limits of humor in particular contexts. This example is no exception. Certainly a congressional hearing is not a scene in which one might expect a parodic enactment of a critique meant to level a certain perspective, let alone a blatantly performative judgment on the inertia of the government with respect to contemporary framing woes. However, it is important to note the limits of straight reason as well. Supposed reason, after all, has perpetuated the abovementioned theory and contributed to a similar mode of rationale that sustained the passing of one of this country's most egregious anti-Immigration laws in history. It is reason that has led to massive corporate farming. It is reason that expects large-scale, industrial farming to be sustain itself by the almighty "invisible hand." Reason. Its serious stuff, to be sure.

Colbert's "performance" was certainly controversial, and therefore seriously problematic for some. Yet it speaks directly to the power of humor to speak directly--especially when, amidst the myriad problems that require serious attention, the government, as Colbert indicates, "isn't doing anything." True enough: play is not the same as reason, and humor is necessarily incongruous in its argumentative stance. But that does not make it any more unreasonable than reason itself.

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque