Comment by thinkingemote

Punching up is "look at them, ha ha ha"

Funnier comedy is "look at us, hahaha!"

Note that punching up is the same mechanism of humour as punching down. "look at people who are not like us, ha ha ha"

I always found the funnier things were not about punching up or down but were applicable to anyone. Restricting comedy to only be about punching up turns it into a political tool and not an art form that makes us feel better. Comedy that is only allowed if it sends a political message is firstly propaganda and then humour. It's why most modern comedy elicits a smile at best and no belly laughs any more. It can still be amusing but it has no universality.

The best comedy has truth about ourselves in it. Psychologically "punching up" is a rejection of these things in ourselves. Ideologically, "punching up" is a tactic reinforcing group identity coherence.