SAMPLE REVIEW FOR CASE STUDY ON “ACHMED, THE DEAD TERRORIST”

Situation: Achmed the Dead Terrorist is a puppet of Jeff Dunham whose comic acts have made a wave in the online world and in the cell phone industry. Despite the popularity of the act, a Moslem sector in South Africa does not find the whole thing funny. In fact, a man filed a complaint and requested that the show be banned. This move brings us to one important question: Should media’s freedom to make people laugh be diminished in favor of media’s responsibility to promote equality?

Analysis: A saying goes that laughter is the best medicine. Media freedom to make people laugh is part of the entertainment package. Nowadays, we cannot deny that one of our main reasons for tuning in to mass media is really to get entertained. Comedic shows and standup acts are almost always a hit. The downside with media’s entertainment rights is that some jokes do hurt.

This is exactly the case with the move to ban the act. Moslems who felt slighted by the joke are hurting. They are reminding media of its responsibility to promote equality. Where these stereotyping and racist jokes abound, media falls short of this aim to promote equality. In fact, by glamorizing the jokes, media is even subconsciously promoting stereotyping which can lead to discrimination and injustice.

Granting that this complaint and move have not been raised, there remain external factors that suggest that the standup act of Dunham and Achmed will not be a total success to the audience such as policies or censorship by a review board, and the lack of police power in the internet, for instance. Review boards normally exist to approve or disapprove of the airing of the show, but we strongly think that the decision to approve of the show was not one based on media as the promoter of social justice but on media as a business entity.

Another external factor is the vastness of the Internet and its lack of policing and censorship agents. Because nobody owns the Internet, no specific agency is responsible for regulating the content that gets uploaded and downloaded by Internet users. Nobody can stop people from watching the video. Even if the video were removed, chances are there are viewers who have saved backup copies of the video, which can be freely shared via personal s, blogs and even file- sharing sites.

In this case study, media has conflicting duties to two gods: the business organization and the audience. As a business entity, media deserves an A grade for the act. Achmed has raked in a lot of page views and profits. All he needed was the Internet and a funny script. However, media’s duty to the audience is subject to scrutiny. The silent majority are obviously entertained. But the vocal minority is not.

Is media right in airing the show considering the greatest good for the greatest number? Or should media have just refrained from airing the act in order to not offend the minority? One fact remains: The utilitarian concept of deciding the greatest good for the greatest number stands out. Whatever media does will not make everybody happy anyway – not today, not tomorrow, not ever. The jokes were harmless and in no way explicitly told the world to be wary of Moslems because “all Moslems are terrorists.” We must remember though that the act is rife with violent content and hate speech – and this is probably the area where Dunham and media need improvement on.

Honestly, we do not think the issue was such a big deal. First, the audience knew that the act was a joke. The main aim of the act was to make people laugh, not to slight anybody. Second, as Dunham pointed out, he did not only “skewer” the Moslems, but the Jews and a number of races as well – including his own wife. The move to ban the show was just a knee-jerk reaction of close-minded people who do not know how to ride on to jokes. Sometimes jokes do hurt – but only if we allow them to hurt us. Life is too short to be serious about everything.

Decision: Should media’s freedom to make people laugh be diminished in favor of media’s responsibility to respect all religions? Again, we think the answer is no. Although the ideal answer is yes, the fact remains that media cannot please all people. Since it is impossible for media to ban and undo the comic act which is well-loved my millions worldwide, the least recourse that media has is to provide ample warning to the audience of the show and Internet viewers that the comic act does not have any evil intent to badmouth any race.