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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Bad Taste Humour
    Posted: August 10 2010 at 04:15
I was told this "joke" the other day.
 
 
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.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 04:19
You can make a joke out of anything, it just depends on the audience and the punchline.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 04:57
Very interesting beginning to a thread, nice one

I was concerned it was to be a magnet for offensive 'jokes' which would get the thread closed within its first page, but I like the idea & really hope it does not derail.

Jon Lord 1941 - 2012
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 05:51
their are different categories of these tasteless jokes or harsh jokes (call it what you like),
 
like jokes wich more then boderline raceist, jew-jokes, N-jokes, gypsey-jokes,
 
thier are blonde jokes
 
sex jokes, rapist jokes etc
 
jokes about infants
 
and some other sickening / dark / provocative yet humourous if told right.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 06:04
Even though some of the old guard want to say otherwise, I think it's already been pretty much inarguably proven that there is nothing impersonal- that is to say, it did not directly affect you- which cannot be made funny. The Holocaust, child abuse, 9/11, whatever, there exist successful and acclaimed comedians and shows who make light of that all the time.
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?
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 06:36
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 06:53
Joke I heard at the shops yesterday.



Bad news about Pakistan.


It stopped raining!


Edited by Snow Dog - August 10 2010 at 07:19
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 07:17
Originally posted by Snow Dog Snow Dog wrote:

Joke I heard at the shops yesterday.



Bad new about Pakistan.


It stopped raining!


I have a dark sense of humour, but that didn't make me laugh. I suppose you would have to be British/Welsh to feel that one.


Edited by Any Colour You Like - August 10 2010 at 07:19
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 12:10
The maxim is "tragedy + time = humor."

That's why it's (generally) socially acceptable to make jokes about the Titanic but not the WTC terrorist attacks.  But give it 100 years...once people are far enough removed from the event, the freer they will feel to laugh at it.  That chronological distancing builds an emotional buffer.

On another note, dead baby jokes.  I don't think they're funny and I don't even pretend to laugh when someone tells me one.  But the thing is, it's not even that the subject is a dead baby so much as they lack any humorous quality.


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 12:18

I laughed. LOL

I don't like people who are oversensitive about jokes.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 12:26
It's the thrill of making the most evil joke, something so perverse that you laugh at it's absurdity and you laugh at how wrong you think it is to laugh at. Society and media censorship try to create a bubble of appropriate humor so stepping out of it (by miles) can get you laughs.

Who can think of the best raping aborted fetuses joke?


Edited by stonebeard - August 10 2010 at 12:26
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 12:34
I don't like ones about Jesus being crucified because they're just senseless such as Jesus walking up to a hotel clerk putting three nails on the desk asking if he can "be put in for the night".
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 12:40



Originally posted by Jim Garten Jim Garten wrote:



I was concerned it was to be a magnet for offensive 'jokes' which would get the thread closed within its first page, but I like the idea & really hope it does not derail.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 12:42
Originally posted by The Truth The Truth wrote:

I don't like ones about Jesus being crucified because they're just senseless such as Jesus walking up to a hotel clerk putting three nails on the desk asking if he can "be put in for the night".

LOL
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 12:44
Originally posted by Snow Dog Snow Dog wrote:

Joke I heard at the shops yesterday.



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.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 12:45
Originally posted by Snow Dog Snow Dog wrote:

Originally posted by Snow Dog Snow Dog wrote:

Joke I heard at the shops yesterday.



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.


Oh...so you weren't supposed to laugh at that?
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 12:47
Originally posted by stonebeard stonebeard wrote:

Originally posted by Snow Dog Snow Dog wrote:

Originally posted by Snow Dog Snow Dog wrote:

Joke I heard at the shops yesterday.



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.


Oh...so you weren't supposed to laugh at that?

Not sure if you are being sarcastic.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 12:53
Not sarcastic; I admit I chuckled a bit, then felt bad.

That's how it works. No one reads a joke and thinks to themselves, "Oh here's the part where I laugh, 'Ha Ha Ha.'" You read or hear it, laugh if it, for whatever reason, is funny. And then, when the joke starts to collide with the social norms ingrained in your brain, you may have a reaction that tells you you shouldn't find it funny and cut it out. Then you feel bad...maybe.

Like I said, there are reasons for laughing at what would otherwise be really terrible things outside the context of a joke.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 12:54
Originally posted by Epignosis Epignosis wrote:

The maxim is "tragedy + time = humor."

That's why it's (generally) socially acceptable to make jokes about the Titanic but not the WTC terrorist attacks.  But give it 100 years...once people are far enough removed from the event, the freer they will feel to laugh at it.  That chronological distancing builds an emotional buffer.

On another note, dead baby jokes.  I don't think they're funny and I don't even pretend to laugh when someone tells me one.  But the thing is, it's not even that the subject is a dead baby so much as they lack any humorous quality.

Out of curiosity, I googled "9/11 jokes". Stern Smile
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2010 at 12:58
Originally posted by A Person A Person wrote:

Originally posted by Epignosis Epignosis wrote:

The maxim is "tragedy + time = humor."

That's why it's (generally) socially acceptable to make jokes about the Titanic but not the WTC terrorist attacks.  But give it 100 years...once people are far enough removed from the event, the freer they will feel to laugh at it.  That chronological distancing builds an emotional buffer.

On another note, dead baby jokes.  I don't think they're funny and I don't even pretend to laugh when someone tells me one.  But the thing is, it's not even that the subject is a dead baby so much as they lack any humorous quality.

Out of curiosity, I googled "9/11 jokes". Stern Smile

Holy crap some of those are baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.
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