Just Joking: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Humor

Abstract

This paper examines the ethics and aesthetics of humor. If ethically bad attitudes are manifested in a joke, then, roughly, the immoralist holds that this counts towards the humor of the joke, the moralist holds that the joke isn't funny, and the amoralist holds that this has nothing to do with the humor of the joke. These three views are criticized, and instead ethicism about jokes is defended: roughly, if ethically bad attitudes are manifested in a joke, that counts against the joke's humor. The implications of this view for aesthetics are explored, and ethicism about humor is connected to a broader thesis concerning ethicism about art.