Bring on the clowns

Even on such a serious subject as animal rights, there has to be a ridiculous side, a human side, which can always show us how capable we are of behaving absurdly. We need clowns because there’s so much scope for making mischief and even more if we are poking fun at ourselves at the same time. If we can show that we value vulnerability in ourselves and in others, we can approach this HUGE subject on an equal footing with others. By showing that we are incapable of being spiteful, we’ll seem far less dangerous . . . and what we have to say to be more intriguing than confronting.
From a humour point of view there’s so much material here for sending up. Our fellow humans, especially the meat eaters, can so easily make themselves look ridiculous if only because they seem to be so unthinking. They don’t look carefully at their food, or its origin, because they’re beguiled by the taste of it, so it eventually kills them. And of course if they are ridiculous so are some animal activists who take themselves so seriously that they make good targets for parody. And how about those people with no ideals, who look like buffoons when anything serious comes up. And we mustn’t forget the ultimately shallow guy who follows the crowd, who has social cool but very little else. It’s all potentially laugh-at-able. There’s so much scope for talented clowns, to make us look like fools and make us think about what we are doing. Here is an opportunity for sharp edged mischief to be mixed with the harmlessness of humour.
The light touch allows us to go further than sermonising. The combination of dynamic mischief-making and non-violence lets us say almost anything we want to say - and get away with it. Point made: no hurt feelings, just a few lightly bruised egos and some self-deprecation to release the tension. That’s one way of doing it anyway.