Zizek's Jokes: (Did You Hear the One About Hegel and Negation?)

Jokes should be taken with utmost seriousness, while somber theory should be dismantled with humor is ultimately the lesson of this collection of gags and witticisms culled from the Slovenian thinker's many works of political philosophy. It distills one of the problems with his often dense writing: one tends to remember the joke and miss the point. Edited for length and chosen for maximum impact, many of these jokes will make you laugh: What's the perfect couple? A frog-prince and a bottle of beer! What's the matter with that golfer walking on that water-trap, does he think he's Jesus!? No, he is Jesus, but he thinks he's Tiger Woods! The theoretical point being made, however, is often missing. While Zizek (The Year of Dreaming Dangerously) is able to mobilize jokes about political correctness to take down waterboarding and dirty jokes to explain the convoluted thinking of G.W.F. Hegel and Jacques Lacan, other jokes are left without context. This leaves some bald in their racism: at one point we are reminded of "an old racist joke," but the jab at the Roma isn't followed by an anti-racist point%E2%80%A6 or any at all. This is in part remedied with a list of references to the original works, but the problem leaves some of the 30 pages of new material naked in the sun. In the afterward by Zizek-inspired comedian/artist Momus some of the theoretical import of humor is explored, but in the end it's not clear who's laughing%E2%80%A6 or why. (Mar.)