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It's Time to Talk About the John Y*o "Prank"

Many of you have probably seen the video of a "prank" an Australian comedy show pulled on Professor Y*o in a Boalt classroom. I'm not going to link it here, but it was on abovethelaw recently, and I'm sure you can google it. Knock yourself out.

Obviously, how you feel about this video is inextricably tied to the way you feel about the whole "academic freedom vs. possible ethical violations and general horribleness of torture" debate that we have waged in the comments ad nauseum. I'm not really interested in talking about that. I want to know how it made you feel as a student or alumnus of Boalt and someone who has encountered Professor Y*o in real life.

When I watched the video, I felt sick. It struck me as a heinous violation of the sanctity of a classroom and a hostile invasion of a place I consider home. It felt more like an attack than a joke. More than that, I felt bad for Y*o. I don't agree with his opinions on executive authority, but all he was trying to do that day was teach. I could sense his shame at being forced to end the course over something that had so little to do with his job at Boalt. It seemed like his sins were being visited upon his students, which strikes me as unfair no matter how terrible the sin. For lack of a more eloquent term, the whole thing just seemed gross.

This video hit the same week as Bruno, which I found pretty hilarious. Sure, it also left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth initially, but I laughed it off with a shrug. I figured those people deserve it! This discrepancy got me thinking about the cost of relevant comedy. I loved Borat and The Ali G Show. I love the correspondent segments on The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert's interviews with congresspeople. Comedy involving real people mixes humor with comeuppance, and it's a potent combination. Laughing feels twice as great when mixed with smug self-righteousness. But Y*o is the first person I've seen in one of these videos who I actually know. This is the first time the comedy has invaded my world, and it completely changed the way I felt. If it had been Dick Cheney on his ranch instead of John Y*o in my school, I would have laughed my ass off.

Is that natural, or am I a hypocrite? Do I need to completely rethink the way I view comedy, or are these Australian guys just not funny? I don't know the answers to these questions, but the video has forced me to consider whether harmless fun ever is, and if not, whether harmful fun can ever be worth it. How'd it make you feel?

Full post as published by Nuts & Boalts on July 23, 2009 (boomark / email).