“Oedipus Rex” is a tragedy about incest. “Tartuffe” satirizes religious hypocrites. “Fiddler on the Roof” takes on arranged marriages and the persecution of Russian Jews. Playwrights and directors should be encouraged to stage productions that raise important social questions. Sometimes the arts can help people sort through controversial subjects and grow in their world view. But shock value isn’t necessarily a gauge of quality. Sometimes changing tastes and sensitivities render a formerly harmless subject or character unacceptable to audiences. This is especially true with comedies. Forty years ago, Jerry Lewis used to make audiences howl with laughter by playing a squinty-eyed, buck-toothed, heavily accented Japanese character. Nowadays, no one laughs at that kind of racial stereotyping. But sophisticated audiences seem to have no trouble enjoying the outrageously flamboyant, swishing and lisping homosexual characters in Mel Brooks’ “The Producers.” Why is that? I can remember a time when no-fault divorce and “blended families” became all the rage, and any fairy tale with a “wicked stepmother” was considered politically incorrect. At one time there was a whole sub-genre of “hillbilly” plays, poking fun at uneducated, unwashed mountain folk. The makers of Disney’s “Pocahontas” went to great lengths to portray Native Americans in a positive light, but weren’t the least bit concerned about negatively depicting the British characters as hopelessly clichéd and offensive stereotypes. The Uncle Remus “Brer Rabbit” animal stories provide wonderful insights into human nature, but the use of a slave-based “negro dialect,” greatly praised when the stories came out in the 1880s, is problematic today. Hopefully responsible directors will think twice about choosing a comedy about a “drunken Irishman” or a “promiscuous priest.” But what about “dumb blondes,” “gangsta rappers” and “surfer dudes”? Are they still fair game? It all boils down to the play’s comedic spirit. Many, perhaps even most comedies get their laughs by degrading a person’s basic human dignity, by having supposedly adult people act like juveniles, by cutting people down, putting them in embarrassing situations or insulting them. It’s a cheap kind of laugh, and there’s really very little good that comes from that kind of humor. My favorite kind of humor, which I like even better than puns, one-liners, and jokes, is the kind that comes from honest and respectful insights into human nature. Rather than shaming a character or turning someone into an object to be scorned, this kind of humor makes the characters more endearing, even with their faults and idiosyncrasies. Will Rogers was an expert at this life-giving kind of comedy. Bill Cosby “gets it.” You can see it in some of Neil Simon’s plays, where comedic friction is developed between well-meaning people who are trying to work together or get along. In my new play “Babushka’s Gift,” now available through Pioneer, I have a character who is inept as a husband and father. But during the course of the play, he learns to compensate for his shortcomings, and can laugh along with others at his attempts to get it right. Maybe it can all be summed up by asking whether an audience “laughs at” or “laughs with” the characters. Specific character types go in and out of fashion. Humane comedies don’t do anyharm, and often we’re better off because of them. | 
