Comedians love to push the limits of what is deemed socially acceptable. They go into subjects that many would never touch. Sometimes this is successful, and people are able to laugh at topics that would normally offend. A comedian knows they have been particularly successful when even the people they are making fun of are laughing. This takes knowledge of the individuals, enough for them to chuckle under their breath and say: “Yep, that sounds like me.” 

But sometimes, comedians miss the boat entirely.

Pete Holmes, a comedian with his own show titled “The Pete Holmes Show,” most certainly did not hit the peg when it came to a Nov. 4 show that blamed farmers for daylight saving time, for which Holmes’ has an apparent distaste.

There is certainly nothing wrong with poking fun at farmers, but Holmes lacked any tact and lacked even basic knowledge of farmers to be able to make any jokes that a farmer could even chuckle at. On top of that, he got almost all the information surrounding daylight saving time wrong.

In the beginning of his show, Holmes made the point to say farmers were a very small group of individuals, really only six or seven people, and that the whole reason for daylight saving time was so farmers could have more time take care of their wheat. To top it off, during his show, Holmes consistently represented these farmers with a monotonous, boring voice meant to make the farmer sound slow and unintelligent. Most of this, of course, was exaggerated for the purpose of entertainment, but there was simply nothing to laugh at. 

The idea that farmers proposed daylight saving time is a myth.

Benjamin Franklin, George Vernon Hudson and William Willett have all been given credit for some extent for the idea of daylight saving time, which was first implemented during World War I so that the Allies could conserve coal.

The idea had literally nothing to do with farmers. This makes one wonder if Holmes purposefully chose farmers as the butt of his jokes simply because he assumed them to be easy targets. Or, perhaps, he was just that unsuccessful in his research of the daylight saving tradition.

Later in the show, Holmes asked: “I just want to know why we are accommodating farmers anyway?” as he described farmers as wearing oat bag dresses and characterized them as the “dirt illuminati.” Despite his desperate attempts to be funny, Holmes’ ignorance prevented his jokes from succeeding.

Farmers are not some elite group without a sense of humor or the ability to take a joke, but Holmes wasn’t bringing farmers in on the joke. Instead, he poked fun at a subject he seemed to know nothing about, perpetuating incorrect stereotypes of farmers and making them out to be bumbling idiots.

Holmes has the right to say whatever he believes to be funny, but farmers have the right to be angry for being so blatantly misrepresented. It’s understandable that many people who have lived in the city do not understand what farmers provide for them or the human labor that goes into the food they put on their tables each day.

People should take the time to educate themselves on what thousands of their fellow Americans are doing each day to make sure they are well fed. We should not continue to stereotype such a group of diverse, hard working individuals.