You can put clown shoes on just about anything that you aren’t comfortable with. Not in the physical sense, but in the ideological sense. Laughter serves an often underestimated utility in our society, because we laugh at everything.

Why do we find TV personalities like Glenn Beck and Stephen Colbert humorous? We take what they have to say deadly seriously. If we didn’t, Colbert wouldn’t have spoken in front of Congress; so many people wouldn’t think that Glenn Beck was actually right instead of being a bad caricature.

This paradox of taking them seriously while thinking they are hilarious is used to counter any criticism leveled at them by supporters. If I say, “What [insert name of person] says is outrageous and disregards the responsibility that comes along with being a public figure,” the retort of, “Chill out man, they’re just entertainers,” is quickly offered up. Meanwhile people hang on to their every word and use the ideas that are put forward by these “entertainers” to shape their own ideologies.

Entertainers are what they are, though, as is shown through their actions. Glenn Beck brings the big top circus atmosphere to the Lincoln Memorial. I’m sure I’m not the first person to voice this opinion: I think that was hugely disrespectful.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who died for what he believed in. He gave a very moving speech at the Lincoln Memorial not so long ago, having the courage to get up in front of a crowd of Biblical proportions and bare his soul to the world; to cry out against the oppression that his race was experiencing. He had the courage to keep getting up and pushing forward every day, even though the times were showing that doing so might not end up being so good for his health — Malcolm X was gunned down in front of his family and friends while starting to give a speech.

But these are all things I shouldn’t have to tell you, right? You’ve weighed these things in your mind, carefully. You didn’t just “yuk, yuk, yuk” along with everyone else’s laughter. You stopped and really thought about what was going on around you, about how the attitudes and ideologies of your peers are affecting society’s paradigms and therefore affecting you.

William Blake wrote, “Excess of sorrow laughs, excess of joy weeps,” poignantly pointing out the duality of emotions. We laugh not just when we’re happy, we also laugh when we’re miserable. This nation has much reason to laugh then, when “entertainers” are so arrogant and everyone seems to be OK with it.

The people in Colbert’s camp have their hackles raised right now. Yes, I understand that his rally is a response. I’m not sure if the fact that it is a response, in and of itself, is a justification.

Is the three-ring circus that our political thought process has become really so sad that it’s funny?