12
Popular Culture Review
intent and the comic aura that has grown up around the idea of the pirate in
popular culture, the whole experience becomes comic.
Cap’n Slappy provides a related, but distinct idea of where the comic
incongruity of talking like a pirate comes from. He stated:
Well you know we thought it was funny because we’re goofy
and just changing your voice, it works on the two-year-old
humor level you know . .. where their parents tell bedtime
stories using goofy voices and stuff and the pirate voice, it lets
you be scary which I think introduces people to funny. Funny
becomes the relief of the fear.” (Summers)
Two points, I think, are important here. One is the basic incongruity of
changing your voice, the act of sounding like someone other than who you are.
The other point is this relationship between fear and comedy which we touched
on earlier when discussing the camivalesque. There is more to be said of this
relationship, however. One of the major theories of comedy in philosophical
literature is called the Relief Theory. One of the most important proponents of
this theory was Sigmund Freud who wrote about it in his Jokes and Their
Relation to the Unconscious. While this is a simplification of Freud’s ideas, the
Relief Theory is that essentially laughter is the release of psychic energies or
tensions. Cap’n Slappy went on to describe his own experience with Pirates and
the relationship between fear and fascination that he felt:
When I was a kid growing up in Seattle there was a group
called the Seafair Pirates, part of the Seattle Seafair festival
every summer, and these guys dressed as pirates. They
growled. They grabbed kids off the street. They had swords.
They were awesome to behold. Scary as hell and ultimately
sweethearts, but as kids you were drawn to that. Terrified that
they would grab you and squealed with delight if they did. I
don’t think that part of the brain goes away completely. I think
the things that scare us, make us laugh. That’s where gallows
humor comes from. I think laughter is the only appropriate
response to fear. I’ve always thought that the way to move
past something is to make a joke out of it. (Summers)
Perhaps that ultimately is one of the best explanations for the fascination
with pirates in popular culture. We are frightened, but fascinated with the idea of
pirates and piracy. That in itself is a paradox.
8. and 9. Plunder and Pillage
Part of the performance of piracy and indeed piracy itself is the idea of what
we get out of it. For real pirates, of course, this means treasure or some kind of
financial gain. These were and are desperate people who hazard life and limb for
the rewards that piracy offers by taking from others. Cap’n Slappy said of
piracy, “You know we’re all pirates at heart. Everyone that’s wanted anything in