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Potentially Controversial for a Monday
Is there a subject that is not suitable for humour?
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No best answer has yet been selected by Bangkok. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.The vast majority of "stupid irish" or other stereotype jokes do not need the stereotype to work. You just say "There was this really naive bloke" instead of making it Irish (or Kerry, or Ukrainian or whatever); "a recently qualified driver" instead of "woman driver"; " a stingy bas*ard" rather than a Jewish, Scottish or Yorkshire person. If a joke really is funny, it can nearly always be told without the lazy short-cut -- and in my experience the audience does not notice the change.
When told with the stereotype, such jokes often serve to reinforce bigotry and make such views and actions seem socially acceptable. On the other hand, some stereotypes are not offensive. Many "Jewish mother" jokes are like this -- they are social observation rather than bigotry -- and by far the best Jewish jokes I've heard were told by Jewish people. Though even then, "ambitious mother", "over-protective parent" and so on work just as well.
It's also more acceptable where the joke attacks bigotry itself. For example, the "make sure he's dead" one told (twice) in Cardboard's thread is like that.
Sometimes it's the very fact that a joke is tasteless which makes it funny. I don't mind these, so long as the boundary is tailored to the audience and the humour does not give solace to evil people. For example, personally I found the pederast and incest jokes in Cardboard's thread to be well beyond that boundary -- they sound like the sort of jokes such people might actually tell to each other.
No, that's not what I'm saying at all.
I have a particular sense of humour, others have a simliar sense of humour, many do not.
In fact, I tend to find things that offend people amusing, because they get people so worked up about it. Whether it be child abuse, 9/11, racial jokes, harold shipman one-liners whatever, I'm not saying I endorse/condone the subject matter, I'm just saying that I take pleasure in witnessing how the 'offended' make a big song and dance about the aforementioned subjects and always make a big point of telling everyone how discusted and appauled they are.
Ok. I realise that humour is a very personal thing and sometimes it's very difficult to explain why someone thinks something's funny, when someone else doesn't (I still can't find anything amusing about Red Dwarf :). I guess this makes us all individual and gives us out identity. I guess if we all laughed at the same things the world be be rather dull and predictable.
So I'm apologising for any posts that offended people, I really didn't mean to upset anyone, more test a theory.
So I'm going to say no more on the matter.....
Thanks guys & gals
natalie - no one is knocking Ahmed's personality - I don't even know him - do you? I purely thought those two particular jokes were sick & I see that I am not alone in thinking that.
Anyway, as I said before, I have been cracking up at most of the jokes on that thread - including yours natalie! Very humorous - keep 'em coming!
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