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The Comedian, The Christian, and Shock Value
During a comedy show, black comic David Lucus made a joke about George Floyd while battling a black heckler in front of a mostly white audience. After so many interruptions, Lucus informed the heckler that he was illustrating to the white audience why George Floyd had his neck kneeled on.
The audience was shocked.
Lucus told the audience not to “boo” the joke. He then assured the audience that he would never have kneeled on George Floyd’s neck and would have shot the N-word. Some of the audience laughed, while some black attendees walked out. On the way out, someone told Lucus that he stooped too low for a joke.
Of course, the incident went viral.
Many influencers chastised Lucas for his joke. They maintained that Lucus confused shock value and comedy, implying that shock value is not inherently humorous. Influencers also accused Lucus of using “black pain and suffering” to elicit a cheap laugh from a white audience. Lucas stated that he would apologize to anyone who took offense, but he would not apologize for making a joke.
It should come as no surprise that shock value is used outside of comedy, but it is more difficult to recognize.
For example, podcaster Jason Whitlock had a conversation with a Christian author in the middle of Black History Month. Whitlock named his show Martin Luther King’s True Legacy How He Led Black America Away from God and Into Democrat…