Your jokes about incest and Kentucky are largely unfunny, unoriginal and a bit harmful | Opinion

Not sure if you’ve heard the news but those backwards folks down in Kentucky are at it again. At least that’s the sentiment I keep seeing on social media recently.

Rep. Nick Wilson, R-Williamsburg, filed a bill that would’ve removed first cousins from Kentucky’s criminal incest law. House Bill 269, in its original version, struck “first cousins” from the list of familial relatives it is illegal for an individual to have sex with.

When the text and details of the bill were posted by reporters on X (formerly Twitter) the evening of Jan. 16, it resulted in a lot of general confusion, befuddlement and other feelings of…really just absurdity, about why this is something a state representative wants to focus on.

Wilson explained in a subsequent Facebook post on Jan. 17 that during the drafting process of this bill there was “an inadvertent change, which struck ‘first cousins’ from the list of relationships included under the incest statute,” and that he failed to include that language back in before formally filing the bill.

In the post he said the purpose of the bill is to add “sexual contact,” such as touching or groping, to the statute. That would make sexual contact done by those with a familial relationship fall under the state’s existing incest law, which it currently does not.

He told WKMS the intent of the bill is to create a new law protecting Kentuckians from “acts that don’t amount to intercourse” from people with familial relationships.

Wilson has since withdrawn the original bill and refiled it with the language pertaining to first cousins included. Which, let me be clear, leaving that part of the statue as is, with first cousins included, is the correct thing to do.

Now I’m not going to talk at length about the specifics of this legislation, or the general screw-up that happened here; other than say if you’re a state lawmaker consider, I don’t know, reading over your bills before filing them. If you don’t intend to remove first cousins from the state’s incest law then, maybe, don’t file a bill that would do that.

What really gets me about these kinds of situations that throw Kentucky into a national spotlight (likely in part because Wilson won “Survivor: David vs. Goliath,” and also because of how crazy it is) is that everyone has something to say about Kentucky.

Just when you think we’re pulling ahead in the court of public perception we end up taking thirty steps back! Certainly doesn’t help us combat the stereotypes we often fall prey to.

I did a lot of scrolling online about what people had to say about this news story. I was not surprised to see a lot of the same jokes and comments people like to throw out there whenever Kentucky gets into the limelight.

“Kentucky…I’m shocked [rolling eyes emoji],” “I guess Kentucky is running out of banjo players,” “Kentucky inbreds,” “Kissing cousins,” “Family tree with no branches,” you get the idea.

Jokes and comments like this, I don’t even personally find them offensive anymore. I grew up having people in the bigger cities like Lexington and Louisville, and plenty of people from outside the state, make jokes about where I grew up.

Oh, you all wear shoes? Oh, you know how to read? Oh, I didn’t realize it was this poor in these areas. Oh yeah, you’re Kentucky Fried Chicken! That last one was pretty funny because it was said to me by a drunken Welsh man inside of a KFC, actually.

Other people may find them offensive, and that’s fair, but more than anything else I find them unoriginal. At least have some creativity with these jokes, people.

Did you know there are two states that have legalized incest? In Rhode Island and New Jersey incest between consenting adults is legal, but marriage in these circumstances is not allowed.

Yet I don’t see many jokes being cracked about the people in these states. I suppose the hillbilly trope doesn’t extend that far up the eastern seaboard.

I won’t pretend incest doesn’t exist at all in Kentucky. Perhaps the most enduring and infamous story surrounding it is the “Blue People of Kentucky,” aka the Fugate family who lived near Troublesome Creek.

Members of the family were carriers of a recessive gene, which caused a decreased availability of oxygen to circulate in the body and resulted in blue-colored skin.

As the family grew, they did, indeed, marry first cousins and other family members; as well as marrying into other families who lived close by in the area.

Dr. Madison Cawein, a hematologist at the University of Kentucky, who studied the ancestry of the Fugate family and went on to author research into his medical findings, told Science magazine in 1982 that the descendants were embarrassed and ashamed about their condition.

Kentucky is much more than these stereotypes that crop up when inane things like this happen. I’ve almost got it down to a science now with how people respond and it’s, frankly, boring that folks on the internet don’t have better material.

But in this case it’s also disheartening. Incest, inter-family violence, sexual abuse and the like are points of real concern for Kentuckians, perhaps especially those who live in Wilson’s rural district who may not have the needed resources to get themselves out of a harmful situation.

So feel free to laugh it up at our expense, but at least consider why you find it so funny; barring that, step outside your comfort zone and remove the banjo bit from your next stand-up routine.