Being the father of an (aging) punk rocker, I've thought a lot about this over almost twenty years (he's now 36). This thread is helping me understand. Maybe shocking jokes and lyrics and art are meant as a challenge against shallowness and smarminess.

The people who shriek in protest against Jesus in urine or the Virgin Mary buried in dung - how many of them really care, and how many protest out of some sort of shallow righteousness? Does faith really mean anything to these people, or are they just trying to maintain the respectability of their religious practices?

The cabaret songs and acts of 1920s Berlin were very shocking - and very interesting. One of their main purpose was to spit in the face of the prudish self-righteousness of the NSDAP - the Nazis.

And what about dead baby jokes and now Jade Goody jokes? Could it be that these jokes are meant to question the smarminess and shallow sympathy of people who really don't know Jade Goody and really don't care about her?

I have to say I am shocked by all of these forms of "art" - but still, they make me think, make me question myself and my values. I get no joy out of this sort of humor or art - but I see a purpose in it, distasteful though it may be. These shocking expressions are a direct challenge to our own self-righteousness - and we all suffer from a heavy dose of self-righteousness.

-Joe-


P.S. I go to my son's concerts about once every two years - that's about all I can stand. And it really pisses me off when I have to pay to see my own kid perform...
(I sometimes get comp tickets - depends on the promoter)