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.

 

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.

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!

I don't like people who are oversensitive about jokes.

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.

Well I din't laugh at that joke but I'm not saying I don't laugh at sick jokes. I think I was a bit surprised to hear it in public thats all. It is the sort of joke I would make up though.

 

'Senseless'?  seems pretty funny to me.  Which is what is important about a joke.  Unlike the Pakistan flooding 'joke' which is just nasty and not a joke because a joke has to be funny on some level or other. 

 

Nearly all jokes can be offensive to someone as they nearlly all have a 'victim'.  What is important to me is what lies behind the joke what is the intention of the joke teller -  I would give an example but i can never remember jokes.

 

Now I'm angry cos I can't think of a single joke of any variety

 

 

We came up with Deathcamp Dash where you were an officer in Auschwitz and you had to quickly consign all the inmates to their fates, some in the showers, some in the oven and so on while also finding time to sort through the corpses for gold teeth and beat people so they continued digging their own graves and so on.

 

We're terrible people.

 

When I saw this thread title I knew I had to post this.

Curse you for beating me to it

 

Still the best Peter Jackson film, by the way

We wrote a piece that was beyond offensive from the perspective of an office worker's final thoughts as the plane struck the building and he eventually jumped to his death, sh*tting his pants on the way down. The tone couldn't have been more vicious and unflattering and disrespectful. I don't think it had anything to do with 9/11 at all, I think we were just using that as a platform to show how badass we were. People were roaring with laughter when it was read out at an editorial meeting but nevertheless they declined to print, probably wisely. And this is the same magazine that caused a national stir by printing a guide on how to rob banks using the campus bank as a case study.

I share your thoughts.

I feel bad about it sometimes, but I definitely don't have very nice thoughts on 9/11.

I suspected it was Jackson mainly because of the hard close-ups on the eyes. Just like the killer character in The Lovely Bones. 

 

Some people find something more sinister going on here because they find this cruel. This is not a case of some jokester choosing to say something offensive, this is a case of taking something which another person did in earnest and then holding it up and going "This is stupid and deserves derision." This is nothing new but it seems to have become a lot more common since the internets. Also, it seems to have lost its satirical edge where now it is simply "for the lols" rather than making any sort of point like the founding father's of satire would have done. And the problem with this is that the laughter becomes an attack. To laugh at the people involved is to say "You suck". "Homo Kid" had no point at all but went some way towards wrecking a young man's life.

 

The whole "so bad it's good" ethos, perhaps most popularly expressed in the evergreen "Worst Album Artwork Ever" craze, also comes under this umbrella. (Laughter at physical accidents such as Afro Ninja and America's Funniest Home Videos doesn't really count because they are accidents- you're not attacking the character of the person involved by laughing because accidents can happen to anyone.)

 

You might also like to read up about the infamous "An Hero" meme where a young man's suicide became a big joke on the internet.

 

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/an-hero - http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/an-hero

 

Unlike our non-existent boy with leukemia in the OP, we now have an actual seventh grader with a name who shot himself in the head. And people still laughed.

 

"Skippety bee bop, Christopher Reeve

And Sonny Bono, look out for the trees

And how many retards will listen to me

When I say go to school and take a shot at the teach"

 

I was like wow. This guy just. Doesn't. Care.

 

Bob Saget's version of The Aristocrats joke, which he will generally do if you shout out for it, is quite an experience in this category.

 

Also, you may wish to investigate a website called Rotten. Actually you may not, but it's illustrative of what this thread is about.

When I was a teenager older people were offended by National Lampoon, Monty Python etc. Many years after the sarcastic humour of the Saturday Night Live shows, we had Howard Stern on the radio. People were tuned in to his morning shows everyday. People on subways with headphones, office workers, people driving to work etc,   Stern developed a mentality in a young generation of people and attracted perverts of all ages with his style of humour. He was taking the sarcastic style of the comics from the 70's and adding a much more foul, sensless and cruel type of humour. Laughing at death. He seemed to have an influence over comics regarding their practices. Don Rickles in the early 60's would perhaps point out a lady in the audience stating she looked like an old beaver in heat. Or as being Jewish himself and picking on Jewish men in the audience telling  that they had a hook nose sucking up their lip.

He was shocking and daring and most people would make a point of getting loaded just to see this guy put people on the spot. Stern adapted this routine in some ways....however, he was more childlike and foul. Stern had this attitude like......Who cares what we laugh at....rape, death, etc. He influenced a huge percentage of the youth and helped people along to feeling gratified by this crap.
With Rickles, all you had to do was look at his face to laugh. But, with Stern there was this air of resentment and anger in the humour. I started noticing comics at the Comedy Club in Atlantic City copping his role. Oh well, sorry to go off thread . 

One of the "funny" things i use in a joke, is to say, that i wanted to have my mother and father for xmas dinner.....but the council wouldn't let me dig them up.

Funny....not for some...but i enjoy the darker side of humour...the close to the knuckle type..........but as i said humour is a personal taste.

Humour keeps me alive..i have seen the eyes of death, but managed to avert it through no choosing of my own.......no it wasn't suicide...................................just a bad decision that would've ended my life.........i was in primary school at the time.

So humour is my way of saying i'm alive...regardless how tasteless and upseting it may seem to others......................enjoy.

Not to mention The Koran. (er, well, that might be a death wish)

Said slowly with no confidence or certainty.

 

"OK so this guy goes into an office, there's a talent agent, f**king a dog, the pope in the corner and the guy says OK you're hired and he says I've got this great idea for a show... no wait... it's not that great really, it's a bit rubbish... in fact I haven't really thought of anything at all and the agent says what is it called and the man says I'm sorry, did I come at a bad time?"

 

"Ma'am, this just ain't your day."

 

Perhaps a second favorite:

 

"Easy, door off a shrimp boat."

 

(I worked in the construction industry for a few years, back in the late '70s, just to supply some context, at least for the second.)

 

Realistically, you're probably not going to want to tell these when women are present, as it tends to end the evening.  I learned the hard way, being young and stupid.

 

However, unlike the other things in this thread so far, I wasn't laughing at this. I even chuckled at An Hero but it was not the suicide I found funny, but the response to the original "An Hero" message. This incident just seemed witless- it was just a depraved thing being done, there was no joke, but others seemed to think it was hysterical.

 

My favorite:

 

Why do dogs lick themselves?

 

Because they can.

 

Why did the girl fall off the swing?

Because she had no arms.

 

 

 

Why did the plane crash?

Because it was being piloted by a potato.

 

 

 

The ManRules 
Atlast a guy has taken the time to write this alldown

  Finally , theguys' side of the story. 
( I must admit, it's pretty good.) 
We always hear " therules" 
Fromthe female side....

  Nowhere are the rules from the maleside.    

Theseare our rules! 
Please note.. these are all numbered "1 " 
ON PURPOSE!  

1.  Men are NOT mind readers. 
( FIRST& FOREMOST RULE)

1.Learn to work the toilet seat. 
You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down. 
We need it up, you need it down. 
You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down. 

1. Sunday sports or news, It's like the full moon 
or the changing of the tides. 
Let it be. 

1.. Crying is blackmail. 

1. Ask for what you want. 
Let us be clear on this one: 
Subtle hints do not work! 
Strong hints do not work! 
Obvious hints do not work! 
Just say it! 

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost everyquestion. 

1. Come to us with a problem only ifyou want help solving it. That's what we do. 
Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for. 


1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in anargument. 
In fact, all comments become Null and void after 7 Days. 


1. If you think you're fat, you probably are. 
Don't ask us. 

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of theways makes you sad or angry, we meantthe   otherone 

1. You can either ask us to do something 
Or tell us how you want it done. 
Not both. 
If you already know best how to do it , just do ityourself. 

1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say duringcommercials.. 

1. Captain Cook did NOT needdirections and neither do we. 

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows defaultsettings. 
Peach, for example, is a fruit,not A color.Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no ideawhat mauve is. 

1. Ifit itches, it will bescratched. 
We do that. 

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," We will act likenothing's wrong. 
We know you are lying, but it is just not worth thehassle.. 

1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, Expect ananswer you don't want to hear. 

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear isfine... Really . 

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are preparedto discuss such topics as Football 
or Cars. 

1. You have enough clothes. 

1. You have too many shoes. 

1. I am in shape.   Round ISa shape! 

1. Thank you for reading this. 
Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight; 


Butdid you know men really don't mind that? It's likecamping. 

 

'Alright, are you and orange?'

 

'no'

 

'..'

 

That one always cracked me up back in high school. I have no clue why.

Also just watched The Aristocrats joke, a couple versions. Its horrendous and obscene, but I don't think I've laughed that hard in ages. Its a great way to see the true comedic storytelling and improv skill of the comedians.