It's not a joke.

During an award night, a well-known stand-up comic made a joke about an actress, and her husband slapped him in the face on stage, stunning viewers across the world. Initially, I thought of it as part of a rehearsed act. Soon I realized it was not. It's been more than a week since the incident happened, but we continue to discuss it online and offline.

I will not get into the physical altercation part. Every form of violence is deadly and should never be encouraged or justified. What I keep thinking about is the crass joke the comic made. It was a bad joke and a cruel one too. 

He made a joke about the medical condition of the actress, and making a joke about someone's illness is not okay. That's not humor, and that's is not funny at all. People should stop relishing the negative publicity they get from such detestable acts. They should refrain from making deliberate derogatory statements masqueraded as humor. 

I cannot laugh off everything some stand-up comics say, not because I have an aversion to comedy, I cannot accept that it is okay for them to crack jokes that cross the line of acceptability. 

Why do they forget that jokes that hurt people do not make them cool? I think no one should make facetious remarks frivolously and get away with it. Still, it is disconcerting to see that many comics continue to write crude and offensive material and use them multiple times unashamedly.

I am not focusing on political correctness, censorship, or free speech here. My focus is on the psychological impact, especially in the post-pandemic world. Because depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses are rampant nowadays. 

Moreover, jokes that go beyond the line of appropriateness have created an environment where such crass content becomes normal and acceptable. An example is rape jokes. They're neither normal nor acceptable, yet I have heard people giggling when they hear such jokes. What are we guilty of by doing that? We give comics the validation and audacity that it is okay to deliver insensitive jokes unnervingly.

Such jokes also change how people understand societal norms and the implicit rules of acceptable conduct. Acceptable is a subjective term, I agree. What is acceptable for me may not be acceptable for you, and vice-versa. But it does not give anyone of us the right to crack jokes at the expense of another person's beliefs, habits, pain, or suffering. They hurt badly and leave many damaging impacts.

Comics should work harder on their content creation skills rather than clinging to crass and insensitive content to make the audience laugh. And whenever we call them out for being insulting, they should find a better answer every time and not blurt out the same boilerplate statement: "I was only joking."

No, not everyone can do that.

"What is content writing? Do you get paid well for writing website and social media content?" These are some of the questions I had to answer every other day when I started my content writing career in 2008. Those questions have now become a thing of the past. I get a different set of questions nowadays: "Content writing, isn't that easy? All you have to do is copy and paste the required content from another website, or copy it, tweak a little, and make it yours, right?." Yes, the questions are different, so are the snarky comments: "You write content for a living? Even I could do that!" 

But contrary to popular belief, content writing is not everyone's cup of tea. Original, simple, attractive, engaging, should be keyword-rich, should match the requirement and tone of the company or brand -- content writers are responsible for fulfilling all these requirements and more in every project. From brainstorming to putting thoughts in order, finding the right words, rhythm, and style, and avoiding grammar errors, overused words, and phrases, content writing is a long and hurdle-filled journey we take every day, with tight deadlines.

To be a good content writer, we have to understand the company or brand, the target audience, the current SEO practices, the basics of organic search metrics, and more. We have to make sure that the content draws visitors, provides accurate information, answers the commonly asked questions, creates interest, and encourages people to buy the products or services offered. 

In addition to the general rules and guidelines, every company or brand has its style guide we have to adhere to while writing and editing content.

We should be good at both short and long forms of writing. We should learn how to use the correct words and sentence structure. We also should be good at adding playfulness and fun in the right instances without overdoing it. 

The list is pretty long and keeps increasing every day.

So, if you hear someone saying, “Content writing? Even I could do that,” please tell them it is not entirely true.