Rebecca Black, Stephen Colbert, and the Ethics of Mocking for Charity

Last updated on: April 12, 2011 at 7:25 am by Drew Dixon

Rebecca Black, Stephen Colbert, and the Ethics of Mocking for Charity 2011-04-12T07:25:21-06:00 Drew Dixon

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I tried really hard to avoid watching Rebecca Black’s music video “Friday” but somewhere around Twitter/Facebook status number 75 or so, I finally gave in and watched it. I am not going to lie–I laughed … alot.

The video was posted on Youtube about a month ago and has since received 87,944,639 hits, 1,760,908 comments, and countless parodies, dubs, and remixes–many of which have also procured a staggering number of hits. Late night comedian Jimmy Fallon jumped on this phenomenon in an effort to raise money for struggling schools by challenging Stephen Colbert to come to his show and sing “Friday” if Fallon could raise $26,000 for Donors Choose. That goal was reached in less than 36 hours! There are certainly a number of lessons to be learned here, not the least of which is the astounding popularity of viral videos, but I just want to ask a simple question on the ethics of charity. Does the goal of charity justify mocking someone on national TV? Do the ends justify the means in this instance?

Don’t get me wrong, “Friday” is awful and I honestly don’t know how anyone could watch it without snickering at least a little. If you claim to have watched it straight-faced, you are probably either lying or are far more sanctified than I am. That said, I do think there comes a point where a joke needs to be dropped. We do this with our friends–we know how to tease them and most of the time we do this as an expression of friendship. I try not to tease people I don’t know that well, but teasing between good friends can be fun and even healthy. When done the right way, it can even be a sign that we have become good friends. We all know, however, when we cross a line and a joke clearly went too far. We feel it in our friend’s response–they tense up or give a fake laugh or respond sharply. In that moment, if we care about our friend, we know its time to drop the joke and perhaps apologize.

I am well aware that Colbert’s performance of “Friday” is a much more public example of mockery than what I am describing. But does there not come a point when mockery, even from a public standpoint, goes to far? About the time the video had gotten roughly 35 million hits, Black appeared on Late Night with Jay Leno where she was actually quite charming and Leno was kind. She seemed like a normal 13 year old and she seemed to be taking the whole ordeal pretty well. She said the proceeds of her song were going to be donated to Tsunami victims in Japan and to her school. She even agreed to perform part of her song live. It seemed as if Black had buried the hatchet and was ready to move on. It would be nice if the public would follow suit. However, right at the moment “Friday” seemed to be wanning in popularity, Fallon and Colbert stepped in.

We know what the Bible says about our speech–“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Certainly this principle was abused on the comment thread of Black’s Youtube video (don’t go there unless you are in desperate need of evidence of human depravity). But did Colbert and company cross a line by reinvigorating a joke that was on the cusp of dying?

Is it ok to mock someone for a good cause? You might say that Colbert and Fallon’s tribute is mild in comparison to the average Youtube parody but does their celebrity not exacerbate the force of the joke? It’s clear to me, at least on a personal level that there comes a time when our jokes are no longer imparting grace but instead are damaging the hearer. I think the end rarely justifies the means.

What do you think about this? Do the ends justify the means? After all lot of money was raised for a noble charity and even more money is being raised through Colbert’s cover of the song. Does that justify the potential damage that was done by further mockery? Does the public nature of Black’s video change what is appropriate? Perhaps I am missing something or being too sensitive. What do you think? I think its important that we not elevate the needs of many over our responsibility to decency but I am willing to be proven wrong.

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