so, why was the al franken mock grab photo actually kind of funny, after all, despite the protestations of right-wing pundits and morally self-righteous "progressives", everywhere?

i admit that i giggled when i first saw it. it's a cheap laugh, granted - gone in a second, and never to return. but, it worked as a reactionary laugh, and that was the extent of the intent.

it's not about patriarchy or dominance or control. what it's about is transgression; it's about blatantly flaunting the rules, giving the finger to the man, and doing it all with flair. and, you laugh because you know you shouldn't do that, and yet - look - he's doing it, anyways! the humour is in the audacity of it, and the absurdity of the audacity of it.

it's the same kind of humour that you can associate with any other brazen act of defiance for the sake of defiance, such as perhaps a brazen pie-in-the-face. and, sure - some people will just roundly condemn a good pie-ing as assault. but, they need to lighten up. maybe have a beer, spark a joint...

you can criticize him for this if you'd like, but understand that what you're actually doing is playing the role of the prudish conservative censor trying to shut down offensive comedy routines - you're reprising the role of tipper gore - and not the role of the feminist activist. and, you should expect to run up against push back from actual liberals, as rare as we seem to be, nowadays.

jagmeet singh must cut his beard.