Bad Taste Humour

 

 

Q: What did the deaf, blind boy with leukemia get on his birthday?

 

 

A: Raped

 

 

What's going on here?
The thing is, I laughed. Did you?

Do you think the advent of "anti-humour" like this- increasingly mainstream since the dawn of the internet and attendant memes, many of which are based on things which are not traditionally considered funny- is significant in any way? Does it say something about a person if they laugh about it? Is it a healthy thing with a wholly imaginary situation where there is no boy and there is no rape and there is no leukemia and we simply laugh at the defeat of our expectations that something witty will come and instead we get something bleak and horrible? Or is it somehow sinister that we be amused by a situation involving words like rape?

Discussing humour in the past, I've noticed a very sharp division on the issue based on age. Of course there are exceptions but it does seem to be something that younger people have a much easier time accepting than older people who are often uncomfortable with or even genuinely baffled by such forms of humour.

Also feel free to turn this into a general "theory of humour" thread. Can't be bothered typing it up in full right now, but I'm increasingly drawn to the theory that it's a coping mechanism that kicks in to help you deal with certain cynical or nonsensical events in the world- more detail on that later, perhaps.

The question is not whether it can be made funny, but whether they are doing something ghoulish by laughing at suffering or something positive by turning horror into pleasure.

 

You'll note I said "impersonal"- whether anything personal can be made funny is a different area. Is there perhaps an iron wall around personal issues that makes them sacred? Not much work has been done in the area as you'd have to try doing things like making jokes at funerals though Graham Chapman's funeral suggests that perhaps even personal tragedy can become a source of amusement if you have the balls to attempt it.

 

Interesting movie about this subject by the way called The Aristocrats, anyone seen it?

Bad news about Pakistan.

It stopped raining!

Anyway I was going to make a point.

When someone tells you a joke they kind of bring you into their confidence.......and sometimes you feel forced to at least smile.

It can be awkward.

Not sure if you are being sarcastic.