I think worries about status seeking false preference formation start to break down when you apply them to comedy. For one thing laughter is involuntary, so you should know if you are faking in the teenager pretending to like spirits sense- you can’t half convince yourself you find something funny if you don’t.
For another the social aspect is often inherent to the form. Saying that you don’t really like Steptoe and Son because you wouldn’t find it funny if there wasn’t a laugh track, or you didn’t really like that Stewart Lee because if you were the only person in the room you wouldn’t have laughed, doesn’t to my mind make any more sense than saying you don’t like dance music because you wouldn’t listen to it on your own or you “only” like a song because of a happy memory associated with it.
I think worries about status seeking false preference formation start to break down when you apply them to comedy. For one thing laughter is involuntary, so you should know if you are faking in the teenager pretending to like spirits sense- you can’t half convince yourself you find something funny if you don’t.
For another the social aspect is often inherent to the form. Saying that you don’t really like Steptoe and Son because you wouldn’t find it funny if there wasn’t a laugh track, or you didn’t really like that Stewart Lee because if you were the only person in the room you wouldn’t have laughed, doesn’t to my mind make any more sense than saying you don’t like dance music because you wouldn’t listen to it on your own or you “only” like a song because of a happy memory associated with it.
For the benefit of those of us born in a different country and in a subsequent decade, useful context
Steptoe and Son
Stewart Lee
Seriously, as a 30-something American, I had no familiarity with either of these.