This matches my hypothesis that the minute sex and race equality became official public goals, with the Civil Rights Act etc., thwarting that and slyly upholding patriarchy gained a new "coolness" it had lacked in previous decades.
Which I mean a little differently from "backlash" but do not have space in these margins to articulate.
When equality is an official goal, subverting that goal makes one a rebel, and rebellion (by white people, at least) is praiseworthy by default in US culture. (Insert qualifications for absurd overgeneralization here.)
These people were/are over-privileged dicks, they were never cool.
They say a golden rule of comedy is "always punch up; never punch down," and these yearbooks fail that test. But I also think there are some assholes who enjoy punching down, and that's part of what makes them assholes.
They say a golden rule of comedy is "always punch up; never punch down,"
I feel like that's only been enshrined as a golden rule fairly recently (I'm sure the sentiment existed before, but the phrase itself has been much more prominent in the last decade or two).
Looking it up I see that, unsurprisingly, the status of the rule is disputed and, interestingly, one source traces the rule back to a 1991 Molly Ivins comment.
"There are two kinds of humor. One kind that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity -- like what Garrison Keillor does. The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule -- that's what I do. Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful. When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel -- it's vulgar."
5. There are "comedians" who have made a successful career out of punching down. They can hold whole theatres spellbound by getting up on stage and rambling on like your proverbial drunk uncle. Their secret weapon is validation.
I feel like that's only been enshrined as a golden rule fairly recently
Right. It's a good rule of thumb that's been hardened into dogma by people who love hardening things into dogma.
There was a related story in WaPo today about the sharp decline in black enrollment at the University of Maryland in the wake of all the hate crimes that have happened since the last election. The freshman class went from 12.2% African-American in 2016 to 7.3% in 2018.
The piece also noted that a bunch of yearbook photos have also emerged, because of course they have.
9: That must be College Park. UMBC is 18.3% up slightly from 17.4%.
I suppose having Freeman Hrabowski in charge goes a long way.
A twitter thread showing programs for Dartmouth football games: https://twitter.com/nolanatsutsv/status/1094649779211198464
Most institutions of society are tainted in this way, or something similar. The accounting, which is only starting to build up steam is going to get pretty uncomfortable for a whole ot us.
Fortunately, I'm pure as the driven slush.