Deconstruction of a Joke

From the SEALs to a Slap

A well-constructed joke involves three key elements: the premise, set-up, and punchline.

There was a lot going in the 90’s. By the last half of the decade, two Scream movies have been released, the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is off the air, and the President of the United States is lying to the country about his extra-marital affair with an intern.

In 1997, the war drama G.I. Jane, directed by Ridley Scott, was released starring Demi Moore. Reviews at the time described the movie as “stylistic bombast” with preposterous storylines and an overload of jingoism.

The plot contained some implausible elements with overt political stances and feminist leanings, involving the first woman training to be a Navy SEAL. Despite a compelling “woman warrior” narrative, exciting scenes, and quotable lines, the movie bombed at the box office.

Most memorably, Demi Moore shaved her head for the role.

All of that is the premise of a joke.

The set-up recognizes that partly due to the current political climate and American nationalism, that there are people out there in the world who saw Demi Moore training to be an elite fighter and believed that she was “ugly” due to shaved head. People who saw Demi Moore in the equally panned movie Striptease agreed that she was beautiful, but there was a subset of the movie-going audience who didn’t like her shaved head and thought it made her look unattractive for some reason. The subset of the population who views a gorgeous woman as undesirable due to a shaved head is being set-up, because the woman’s beauty is independent of the length of her hair.

At the Academy Awards in March 2022, Chris Rock role as a stand-up comedian was to tell a joke which incorporated that premise and set-up.

The punchline was that if Hollywood chose to make a sequel to G.I. Jane, then the producers should cast Jada Pinkett Smith in the titular role because she’s a beautiful woman with a shaved head. We’re supposed to laugh at the people who disagree with that observation, because they are clearly out of touch and haven’t evolved much since the 90’s.

At first, Will Smith even laughed at the joke. Because it’s funny.

If you think that Demi Moore or Jada Pinkett Smith is not beautiful due to their shaved head, then I want to laugh at you for being a ridiculous person.