Cheers

Punisher: If Cliff offensive, punish him.Society: They are always offended when Cliff says something they perceive is sarcastic. They are never offended when Cliff says something they perceive is not sarcastic. Cliff wants to modify his behavior into saying what society will perceive to be only nice things. Cliff wants to experience pain only when he says something society perceives is offensive.

Song line flash - Not everyone can carry the weight of the world. R.E.M.-"Talk about the Passion."

As you can by now imagine, there are a number of gaps in this setup that we can subvert:

1. Cliff could say something that in short order he percieves that society percieves was offensive, and so would want tot be punished, but which the punisher doesn't percieve that society percieves as offensive, and doesn't punish.

2. Cliff could say something tht he thinks society thinks is acceptable, but the punisher thinks society perceives to be unnacceptable, and punishes Cliff against his will.

3. Cliff might not think his language offensive to society, and the punisher likewise, but society thinks it is, yet Cliff still doesn't get punished.

4. Cliff thinks his language offensive to society, and society thinks it is, but the punisher doesn't think it is offensive to society and doesn't punish Cliff.

5. Cliff thinks his language offensive to society, and the punisher likewise, but society doesn't think it was offensive, yet Cliff is punished anyway and so on, and so on. . .

A problem that emerges already I call the Garden of Eden problem: Is Cliff being innocent or bad? He doesn't really "know" he's offending people, so he's bestowed his trust in the punisher to act as a surrogate in this regard We as the viewers can never crawl inside Cliff's mind to tell if he's a willing sinner, if Cliff can even know himself. So as we objectify the power to punish into the hands of god or of the courts (eternal damnation or the electric chair), Cliff willingly subjugates himself to a man with a punishing device.

The ideal would be that what comes of of Cliff's mouth is interpreted exactly the same way by Cliff, the punisher, and society. Cliff would be speedily punished every time he says something offensive, and always not punished every time he didn't offend someoneIn reality, misunderstandings will arise, probably frequently, noting that there are three parties involved, and that Cliff spends virtually all of his leisure time in the bar.

Furthermore, the bar is usually jam-packed with people. The punisher may get tired because of the immense amount of time Cliff wants him to keep his eyes on him. He may, in his drowsy condition, miss an offensive remark, orinadvertently hit the buzzer. Also, the punishment mechanism may not work because of an internal disorder (e.g. the batteries could be weak or dead). The shocker may malfunction and shock Cliff by itself. Cliff might get punished, whether what he says is or isn't offensive, by stubbing his toe against a barstool, or having Carla accidently pour a pitcher of beer down his shirt.

Finally we come to assume

1. Cliff always wants to be punished when he says something he thinks society will perceive as offensive

2. This generates a reflexivity: That society's power to punish a specific act defines that act as offensive as much as the offensive act warrants and demands the punishment. Just as much as Cliff feels he must be punished for offending, by being punished, he knows that he has offended. The justice system is complete in justifying itself.

3. Cliff hopes that the apparatus is capable of working when activated.

4. Cliff never wants to be punished when he says something he thinks society will think is nonoffensive.

5. He hopes the punisher will be able to distinguish all of his nonoffensive remarks.

6. Cliff hopes that the punisher is always able to perform his duty.

7. Cliff is capable of feeling pain.

8. Cliff desires to be "reformed" into saying only what society believes are nice things.

9. Society always interprets things Cliff says in the same way, i.e. everytime Cliff says , "You're an ass hole," a person is offended; every time he comments, "That's a nice dress you have on," a person would take it as a compliment. A person would never take the former remark as a compliment or the latter as derogatory. In addition, there is no middle ground, in which a` person could find a comment mixed, partly complimentary, partly sarcastic, like "Is that only ten beers you've had?" The other person would be confused whether to think that Cliff was insinuating he couldn't drink that much, or that Cliff knew he could drink many more beers, and was just giving him a word of encouragement.

10. Cliff wants his peers to think of him as a nice person.

11. When activated, the punishment apparatus will always work in the correct way, always dishing out an electric shock, of the right voltage, enough to produce pain, not enough to kill or seriously injure, and only this shock (nothing else).

12. Other coincidences (stubbing toe on bar) don't happen to Cliff in the sourse of the procedure.

13. What Cliff, punisher and society deems offensive is ideally the same.

14. For Cliff, saying offensive things is a sickness of which he must be cured and changed into the healthy specimen who says and does nothing offensive.

15. It is different if Cliff stubs his toe accidently rather than being shocked if he says something offensive, because the toe-stubbing is absent the power relation between the punisher and Cliff.

16. Cliff must be subordinated and humiliated vis a vis the punisher for reform to be successful. Cliff is not interested in punishment for its own sake, but only as it acts as a catalyst to reform him. (see Foucault's Discipline and Punish)

Any generalization to be drawn from the operation of justice in this procedure must fall back on the audience - us. The episode was staged; in all likelihood Cliff did not get shocked, it was simulated. "Cheers" is one of the most popular shows on TV, ever. This episode was run in syndication, so they must have thought it would accumulate a sufficient level of rating to show it once more. We enjoy the staging of Cliff's being shocked. Most of us don't think it's profane, we think it's funny. We may think Cliff was unwise in making himself ascetic in this way. "Damn it, we don't want the remedy to be effective!" We want the old Cliff back, the one that tells people off, the one that just doesn't know any better.

He offends people, sure, but it's a small price to pay for the entertainment he provides by making a fool out of himself. And to Cliff, he does not degrade or humiliate himself by doing this; au contraire, he relishes it. When the rest of the bar realizes what hell Cliff put himself through so they would like him, they found out that they did like him already, a heckuva lot. They learned to take his comments w/a grain of salt. His lewd comments were better than a justice system worse than the Spanish Inquisition. It's funny to note that the same leftists who decry the Spanish Inquisition, a forceful attempt to restore homogeneity in religious thinking by torturing dissenters, breaking their bodies and minds, want to do the same thing to people who do not conform to the new "just cause." With more advanced surveillance techniques and subtle manipulative means by the spectacle to make us desire our repression, the Inquisitional style of justice isn't even required anymore: it's a lot easier to push people to monitor and censor their own thoughts and actions. Long live Cliff the antihero!