Comic Post #2

In the previous comic, a man and a woman were seen shopping with nothing but undergarments on but they didn’t seem to be bothered by the fact that they were out of place. Several convenience stores have what is known as a “no shirt, no shoes, no service” policy in tact which prohibits anyone who is not following as the rule says from entering in to the store. Many people, store managers being at the head of this group, believe it is unsanitary to not wear shoes into a public place. They see it as being more of a health risk to other customers and to themselves more than anything. There is no law in the state of Nebraska that says you cannot wear shoes into public places, but rather it is up to the establishment itself to determine whether or not you are allowed to wear them. This policy, however, is very different from indecent exposure.

Indecent exposure is defined as “The deliberate exposure by a person of a portion or portions of his or her own body under circumstances where such an exposure is likely to be seen as contrary to the local commonly accepted standards of decency, and may in fact be a violation of law. In some countries a breach of the standards of modesty is considered to be public indecency.” The key part of this definition is understanding that it is only thought of as indecent exposure when the local commonly accepted standards of decency have been violated. If these people would have been sporting their lovely underwear around, say a colony of nudists, they would be much more welcomed. Clearly in this photo we have two citizens who have indecently exposed themselves. Although this is against the law and these people could be fined for it (of course, this is a comic) we as the audience find this humorous. Why? Over the past several years America’s idea of humor and acceptable clothing has radically changed. Humor is “the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement.” (Wikipedia) Humor occurs when the brain recognizes a pattern that surprises it which is why we find the old people funny... We are surprised by the fact that they would not be wearing clothes in public.

1910, Anette Kellerman was arrested for wearing a one piece swimsuit in Australia. Nowadays, women’s one piece swimsuits are thought of as being the kind of swimsuit to wear when you don’t want to show too much skin. Also, American society today finds nudity and sexual based jokes funnier than it used to. Some of today’s “funniest” movies are full of indecent exposure and sexual innuendoes. Take “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” for example. If this movie wouldn’t have been banned from movie screens ten or twenty years ago solely because of its name, it would definitely have been banned due to its incredibly bawdy content. But in today’s society this movie was able to make $57,368,762. This is including DVD sales as well. Humor is something that is evolving with the human race. Future generations will find some things funnier than what, say, freshmen in college find funny. As humor keeps changing, it will continue to surprise humans.