An Edgy Joke

I heard an Australian comedian tell the following joke, and actually laughed out loud at the punchline. It's the sort of humor that's right on the edge of what we allow these days; I suspect many of the folks who object to humor that touches on protected racial/ethnic/sexual minorities would want you not to tell it. For that reason, I'll put it after the jump, so you only have to read the joke if you want to do so. Then I'm going to talk about why I think it's a good joke, and a joke that's reasonable to tell even in this environment.

Q: How does a nonbinary person kill someone?

A: They /slash/ them.

This strikes me as a really clever joke, but also as a joke that's really about grammar rather than any sort of negative emotions towards people who identify as nonbinary. After all, human beings occasionally do kill one another; and there's nothing here to suggest that these people are more likely to do so than anyone else. So even though it contemplates an anonymous person of that kind engaged in violence, it doesn't dehumanize them or make them seem inferior or worse. 

The punchline turns on the ambiguity about whether "they" is singular or plural. It doesn't work for people who use standard pronouns: "He /slash/ him" isn't a grammatically correct sentence because of the principle of subject/verb agreement. You'd have to say, "He slashes him." Because we have begun to treat 'they' as potentially either plural or singular but indefinite, "They slash them" is a grammatically correct sentence in English. 

It's a good joke because it sets up some tension in the opening question, and then resolves it in an unexpected and clever way. It's also got the gift of brevity, which the shaggy dog story violates intentionally but which is otherwise an important principle in humor ("Brevity is the soul of wit").

So, would I tell this joke in public? As usual, it depends on the audience. I can definitely think of many people who would appreciate the joke, and a few who might not.