Introduction To Irony: Or, How To Take A Joke 101 December 4,
2012 I know a few Holocaust jokes. I learned them from the
children of survivors. I suspect they’d disagree with the
Harvard student who declared that pain was no laughing matter.
“I don’t think that jokes should trigger on any type of pain,”
20-year-old Dakota Rot explained to the Boston Globe. She was
responding to satirical fliers distributed on campus advertising
a fake social club, noting “Jews need not apply,” and “Coloreds
Okay,” and including a reference to date rape. “If you’re a
person that’s part Jewish or a person of color or a woman who’s
has been in any dangerous situation, you shouldn’t have to read
this.” Rot declared. It should go without saying that, “you
don’t have to read this.” But if you’re confronted with
offensive speech and fail to avert your eyes or plug your ears,
you will probably survive the encounter. I am “a person that’s
part Jewish” as well as a “woman who’s been in a dangerous
situation,” and I feel fine reading an