IMHO, Chris Morris is a comic genius. His work strides the genres of art and comedy. But his work certainly does provoke the criticism and outrage that modern art does with people. It tends to be fairly polarizing. I find what he does absolutely needed in society, and, from my experience, he clearly doesn’t do it for shock value or financial reward, as jjiimm stated.
For me, Chris Morris is a contemporary absurdist/anarchist/satirist. A lot of his ideas remind me of Ionesco, Kafka or Beckett, placed in an accessible pop setting.
I find his September 11 pieces to be humorous, dark and socially and philosophically critical. Take that as you will. Then again, I happen to be a great fan of black humor, and in my opinion, no subject should be outside bounds of taste. Black humor has many beneficial uses to society, and I often find that American culture (which I am part of) is most sensitive to it. I was shocked at the jokes going around Bosnia and Croatia back in 1996 (just after the war’s end) told by the victims of the war. Jokes about mass graves, genocide, rape. Jesus Christ. But this was a coping mechanism for these people. This is how they dealt with the reality. Yeah, genocide is about as un-funny as it gets, but it helped these people at least psychologically deflect the reality of what had happened.
I understand how sensitive people are toward black humor, so I’m of course very cautious as to who I share such jokes or thoughts with. But I don’t think it makes one insensitive, unpatriotic, an idiot or else. It’s just a way to cope.
A close friend of mine’s brother was found almost-dead last week, placed on life support and kept alive so they could prepare 7 organs for donation. My friend also only has one kidney, having lost one. Her mother’s comment? “Hey K, you sure you couldn’t use an extra kidney? We’ve got one to spare.”
Then again, I suppose you can make an argument separating people directly involved in a tragedy, vs outsiders. Perhaps it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to say that…
