Old Guy Paranoia

So, I'm reading along in this 2019 novel (a good one, by the way) (I should finish it this afternoon) (I'll blog more about it tomorrow in "Sunday Sundries"), and a character refers to a dude in a Brooklyn neighborhood as an "OG." (148).

"Paranoia strikes deep," sang Buffalo Springfield in "For What It's Worth" (1966--I was in my first year of middle-school teaching when that song came out, and I could already relate). (Link to song.)

And so, reading this morning, I immediately thought "OG" meant "Old Guy," and I was appropriately offended.

Then thought I'd check the Urban Dictionary. Turns out, it's "Original Gangster"--so this OG in the novel is a ... presence ... in the neighborhood Jacqueline Woodson is writing about.

But still ... old people comprise one of the few pieces of the human pie still somewhat safe to joke about. (Hell, Shakespeare did it ... remember old Gremio in The Taming of the Shrew? He also made fun of people who are, uh, intellectually challenged--think of Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing.)

I just Googled "jokes about old age" and got--maybe you'd better sit down?--about 128 MILLION results.

Now, I'm not a snowflake--especially when jokes are not about me. It strikes me as odd (and maybe offensive!) that people who are not in a group sometimes remark that people who are in a group should not be offended by a joke or comment or image or whatever.

(I think, for example, of people who say Native Americans should not be offended by the Tribe's Chief Wahoo. Don't want to start anything--just saying.)

Joyce and I have been streaming the new Netflix stand-up special with Arsenio Hall (about 10 min/night or so), and in the portion we watched last night, he talked about how difficult it's become for comedians--the wrong joke, he says, can bury you.

Lots of people in recent years have condemned snowflakes, have said that people shouldn't be so sensitive about identity, shouldn't be so politically correct, etc. Of course, most of these folks are talking about other people in groups to which they do not belong. Easy to do that.

Somewhat less easy? Hearing a joke--laughing at a joke--that makes fun of some aspect of your identity. Your weight, your religion, your race, your age, your gender, your height, your  region of the country, your whatever.

So I guess what I'm saying is this: Most of us need to back off a little. Relax. Laugh.

I say "most of us" because there are groups of people in this country who have endured such historical belittlement and humiliation that they don't need to hear any more jokes about their status--maybe not for another century or so.

Meanwhile, I was annoyed with myself this morning when I got mildly huffy (ignorantly so) about "OG."

Time to practice what I preach. Never an easy thing to do ...