Seriously thoughtful When is HUMOR in "Bad" taste?

[kad032000]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Or, better yet - much better, in fact: get that corpse animated, whether it be feline or human, and have those dead limbs dance a crazy Cumbian tune on a windy night when the wind blows dementedly down dark alleys to touch the hidden parts of the human psyche.

Nick Swardson has absolutely brilliant section in one of his stand up comedy skits about what he wants done with his body at funeral.

"I want a closed casket, so people will think my body's in there..."

[kad032000]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Current jokes about 9/11 are on an entirely different level - one would have to be certifiably insane to joke about that issue. Jokes of that nature will probably become acceptable in a decade or two. However, I'm only guessing.

It is then determined that AIDS is finally funny, since it has been 22.3 years, and a monument is unveiled declaring it as such.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Has_Aides

[kad032000]

Your grim, humorless world is not going to destroy our fragile world of self-mockery. We can still mock ourselves, and you. You are not going to get us. We win.

Brilliant.

[kad032000]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

@nohmi2 @desertgrandma

[snip]

You two are not the be-all and end-all of good taste. Get off your high horse.

Thank you. I would have said that if you didn't.

The moment you tell someone something is off limits to joke about, is the moment you assume you are somehow better than everyone else.

Some people think we shouldn't joke about Catholicism. I went to Catholic school for 12 years and I can tell you first hand some of it is pretty hilarious. Some people think you shouldn't joke about race. Then why do stand up comedians do so well telling jokes about and to people of the same race? Some people think we shouldn't joke about Scientology. Isaac Hayes, anyone?

Either everything is ok to make fun of, or nothing is. If 9/11 is off limits, then why isn't WWII, then why aren't Nazis? etc. etc. It's a slippery slope. (Which, btw, since I can't seem to stay off of South Park references lately, is the premise of Cartoon Wars.)

Just because a situation itself is not funny does not mean there are not funny aspects of it, and that jokes about it are not funny. Dead babies aren't funny, but guess what? Dead baby jokes were all the rage a few years ago.

If you saw something tragic, then I doubt you would find humor in jokes about that situation. Why? Because you are too close to it to the find humor in it. But one could argue that it is for that very reason that you are the person who most desperately needs to be able to laugh about it.

[Daithi]

As long as the intent of the joke teller is to be funny and not to intentionally inflict harm then I'm fine with basically any joke. I don't find all jokes funny, but I'm rarely offended.

I don't care if its racist, sexist, ethnic (I'm Irish and love Irish jokes), or about babies, or children in sexual situations, or dying people, or the Stephen Hawking joke (that was funny), or mentally challenged people. If it's funny I like to hear the joke, but that's just me. I know a lot of people don't want to hear these kinds of jokes, so I try to watch what I say.

There was some big comedy event a few years ago where the participates were asked to tell their most vile joke. After a while the vile jokes started getting a bit monotonous, and then Sarah Silverstein took the stage. She looked out at the audience, then looked at the host of the show, then claimed that when she was younger the host of the show raped her. The audience wasn't quite sure what to think, and the host was pissed, but in retrospect a lot of people think she had the best joke of the evening because it was the most vile.

[nohmi2]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

@nohmi2 @desertgrandma

Guess what? I thought some of the jokes were funny. The people who wrote the jokes thought they were funny. The site hosts think they were funny. You two are not the be-all and end-all of good taste. Get off your high horse.

I didn't post the jokes becuase I knew most people wouldn't like them. Had I known I would be yelled at for simply posting a link, I would have.

Get off your high horse. (Really!!!!)

Are we so insensitive to other people's feelings that we will make jokes about tragedies merely for a cheap laugh? I wonder what the opinion would be of the families whose members died in 9/11.

I personally find jokes about the holocaust offensive.

Time is the great healer, maybe in another fifty years time jokes can be made
about today's tragedies, but it is still too raw in a great many peoples minds to make light of it. It says more about the people who enjoy such humour than it does about the victims.

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by smurphy

what would you do if the invaders came in, taking you whatever you had, and kicking whatever was important to you ?
Always check the other side's view first ...

Are you talking of US soldiers in Irak?

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by nohmi2

Get off your high horse. (Really!!!!)

Are we so insensitive to other people's feelings that we will make jokes about tragedies merely for a cheap laugh? I wonder what the opinion would be of the families whose members died in 9/11.

I personally find jokes about the holocaust offensive.

Time is the great healer, maybe in another fifty years time jokes can be made
about today's tragedies, but it is still too raw in a great many peoples minds to make light of it. It says more about the people who enjoy such humour than it does about the victims.

I didn't post any jokes; I posted a link to the jokes. There is no reason why I should have to censor my posts merely becuase they make you uncomfortable, and yet I did it anyway. I would say I was being sensitive.

[Dr. Drib]

Ok. Now it's time to laugh, so we can all let off some steam and get back to intellectually engaging ourselves in this discussion. Prepare yourselves:

"Harharharhahrhahrharhar. Hahahahahahaahahah."

That was also so you could tell whatever joke you wanted to tell in your mind, and then laugh at it.

Guess what joke I told? You'll never know, 'cause I'm not going to tell you!!! Those of you who know me, however, know EXACTLY what I concentrated on. In fact, I just put it in the microwave. Ummmm, tasty.

One more time, so we can all let off some steam and relax and enjoy our discussion on what constitutes "bad" taste, if anything really is in "bad" taste.

Here goes:

"Ahhhahahhhahahahahahahahahahahahahaaha.."



Don

[yvanleterrible]

The word "bad" has a strong karma. Once you use it, you have to face consequences, however benign most are.

Over the few years spent here and considering the diversity of our 'writership', a certain fragility of relations can spell trouble quite rapidly when strong subjects come to scrutiny.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

The word "bad" has a strong karma. Once you use it, you have to face consequences, however benign most are.

Over the few years spent here and considering the diversity of our 'writership', a certain fragility of relations can spell trouble quite rapidly when strong subjects come to scrutiny.

Exactly. And I like that.

I concede that someone would find argument over the type of toilet paper one uses, arguing passionately for his or her design, strength, number of squares in a roll, total amount, color, and fragrance or lack thereof.

Don

What's round and has a thousand squares?

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Exactly. And I like that.

I concede that someone would find argument over the type of toilet paper one uses, arguing passionately for his or her design, strength, number of squares in a roll, total amount, color, and fragrance or lack thereof.

Don

Now that you mention it .........

[yvanleterrible]

Are we seeking discussion or argument...

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

What's round and has a thousand squares?

Lou Rolls?

[pshrynk]

Freud has said that all humor is about pain and humiliation. We tell jokes to relieve our pain or to adequately deal with the humiliation that we experience in our lives. Don Rickles made a career of insulting people. Lenny Bruce made a career of talking about things that the public wan't ready to talk about. "The Aristocrats" is a movie about telling a joke about horrible people doing horrible things. Name a joke or a comedian and I am pretty certain I can show where the pain is. There's a lot of pain in the Holocaust and 9/11 and deaths in Iraq. As George Carlin pointed out, you can make anything funny if you do it right.