Threatening joke violence.
In the classic British comedy ‘Only fools and horses' Dell Boy would make a half joke threat of violence to his brother Rodney in almost every episode. Most of them anyway, especially the early seasons (though notable less in the later seasons, in the 90s). Like "You'll land an unfortunate one in a minute, Rodney!" He is also shown as a character that, despite his small size, has a tendency and capability to fight and use violence to address a perceived wrong.
In the classic British comedy ‘Only fools and horses' Dell Boy would make a half joke threat of violence to his brother Rodney in almost every episode. Most of them anyway, especially the early seasons (though notable less in the later seasons, in the 90s). Like "You'll land an unfortunate one in a minute, Rodney!" He is also shown as a character that, despite his small size, has a tendency and capability to fight and use violence to address a perceived wrong.
Or I’ve been watching an been older British TV thing ‘Bless this house’ (1971-76) - in it the father (the wonderful actor Sid James) threatens to hit or kill his son, in a jokey way, in every single episode, without fail. It’s one of his trademarks. Stuff like “I’ll put YOUR lights out if your not careful!”
And in the fantastic comedy ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’ in the 1950s Sid regularly threatened to give people a “punch up the bracket”… prompting Tony, in one daft scene in a library to say: “Sid, please - no punch ups on municipal property!”
And an American friend reminded me of the 1950s comedy, ‘The Honeymooners’, were the husband would say to the wife, every most episode, threats of violence like: “One of these days - boom! straight to the moon!”
Of course they never do, not that we see on screen anyway. But to me the threats of violence are already a horrible thing. Even if said in a supposedly joke way, there is normally some real threat underlying it. There is also the reminder of power. Power of the husband over his wife that could be expressed in violence, of the father over the son or the older brother over the younger. It’s also based on economic power, not just physical. The son, wife and younger brother are all in dependent situations. Money could be withdrawn from them, they could be kicked out the house. The joke threat reinforces the power position of the dominant male. Lastly, these joke threats indicate the high level of violence is society in general.
Thankfully it seems like this routine joke violence is much less common on TV now. This seems to me to be a sign of society improving in general. But one exception should be noted which seems to have increased quite a lot on TV in the last 20 years or so - were women joke threat violence towards men (or actually carry it out). Which is seen by some as a way of women getting their own back on men, acceptable or readdressing inequality. But I think this habit is also a bad one, that we should also overcome. Surely the aim is to reduce violence in general - in total - for all ages, genders, ethnicities, classes.
Even in jokes...
And, no…its not JUST a joke.