Why I Find Damian Wayne Funny:

While perusing the WFA massive update last weekend, I found myself intrigued by a couple of posts under the heading "Damian Wayne, the littlest misogynist."

That heading actually makes me twitch a little, because honestly, I think it takes more than sexist commentary to make a misogynist. But that's tangential. The real point is that the posters are wondering why so many people find little Damian Wayne funny rather than offensive.

Now, I haven't read all of Morrison's run yet and I've certainly not read all of Damian's guest appearances in other comics, but since everything I HAVE read involving the character tends to make me giggle, I thought I'd give a stab at answering this question. Please note, that humor is subjective and I'm one person. Others probably have their own reasons.

But for me, the thought process goes as follows:

1) He's like ten years old.

This is similar to why I find Cartman funny on South Park despite being a racist, genocidal monster. Yes, it probably wouldn't be as funny in an adult character. But this is a kid. It's incongruous, and therefore funny.

2) He's like ten years old.

Combat prowess aside, he's pretty harmless. We're not likely going to be seeing this kid beating up his girlfriend, for example. He's small, he's cute. And he's not really much of a physical threat beyond standard superhero kid hijinx.

3) He's like ten years old.

He's young enough to be taught better. And I tend to find stories where sane adults (especially sane adults unaccustomed to being mentor figures) have to try to civilize poorly socialized young people to be generally hilarious.

4) He's like ten years old.

All of the sane, normal adults around Damian clearly don't agree with what he's saying. This is the case of one small child parroting something that is clearly out of place with the values of the people around him and the readers. If Dick, at any point, seemed to AGREE with him, I would find THAT offensive. But every comic I've seen involved Dick either busy, not present, or amusingly exasperated at Damian's commentary.

5) He's like ten years old.

This probably means that he's less misogynist by nature and it's more a product of his very warped by our cultural standards upbringing.

See, I have a streak of gallows humor. I'm sure this shocks you as I have never once mocked, say, how horrible a mentor Wesley Dodds was to little Sandy even before he turned him into a sand monster and lied about it, or made endless wisecracks about any of the endlessly traumatic events in Scott Summers' childhood. (Or for that matter, the fact that in an alternate timeline, the man put down a TARP before committing suicide.) Things that would never be funny in real life tend to provoke horrified laughter from me when encountered in fiction.

Depictions of Damian's upbringing have tended to push that button for me as well. His culturally inappropriate commentary adds to that effect in the "Oh my GOD, WHAT have they been teaching this poor kid?!" way. And then I can't do anything but laugh.

So basically, the answer is:

It's funny because he's ten.

Now if he's still saying the same shit at sixteen? There might be an issue. Maybe not (my favorite lantern IS Guy Gardner after all), but right now, I'm going to continue to find Damian very amusing.