Not that it affects the broader issue, but since it’s a particularly upsetting detail: the three-month-old was taken to the hospital as a precaution and has been released. The baby was not shot and I don’t think he or she was injured at all.
Why? You did nothing but ask to let the thread run it’s course before it went off on a gallows humor siding. I totally agree with you in that regard. Once that starts, the thread looses much of it’s interest, and it’s difficult to return to the discussion. Using your head and being proactive ins’t overstepping your authority.
Oh, good. Thanks, Marley.
Me too. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen any of them on TV making wisecracks about a mass shooting while footage of the carnage is being broadcast.
Well, that’s the thing about comedy. Everyone’s idea of funny is different. And everybody’s idea of when is ‘too soon’ is different. I don’t mean to ‘harsh’ on the mods or anything or bum out their mellow, but I did want to know if it is actually a rule. Because if it isn’t, then that increases the chances that I will get to laugh at the kind of posts that crack me up on the SDMB. Simple as that.
I have an Isreali friend who found the American response to 9-11 interesting. You see, we have no problem making terrorist jokes at all, and he comes from a place where it is a constant thing. It is always happening. It is always ‘too soon’. But when it happened to us, we had David Letterman scowling at Howard Stern about how it is too soon. I understand everyone was shook up, and I can’t knock people too hard about having their world view rattled by 9-11. But, in my house, the jokes were instant. The jokes always are in my house. No matter how dire the circumstance. But that’s just me and the humor that I enjoy. I love that kind of humor when posters dish it up. I thought it was funny, and I am just glad there is no rule that prohibits it.
ETA: Sorry, this was in response to MsWhatsit.
All rules of thumb are random. That’s what makes them a rule of thumb rather than a rule.
Aren’t they as bad as each other? 
Yep, it’s called “class,” and it appears that many people here lack it.
Yeah, I know what you mean. My favorite classy moment of Louis Ck was when he told the joke about masturbating before the 2nd tower even fell on 9-11.
He is my favorite comedian, I follow him pretty closely. He has taken heat for being ‘too soon’ before (Sandusky Jokes) Him being a classy guy has nothing to do with made up time periods when it becomes ok to tell a joke.
I’m with Nzinga, Seated. I don’t have a “too soon” for gallows humour. It’s a coping mechanism, and it helps me deal with senseless tragedy. Of course, I don’t want to make things worse for other people, either. I don’t mind toning it down for a couple of days if the other side will cut down on the “what is wrong with you?” statements.
Nobody is fucking talking about arbitrary “waiting periods” for jokes. We’re talking about knowing your audience.
Did LCK tell that joke as the building was falling? No, because he knows his audience and he knows what is and isn’t funny.
Like I’ve already said up above, anything can be joked about if THE JOKE IS FUNNY.
You said you laughed at Rotter’s jokes, and I’m sure others did as well, so apparently you’re his audience. Forgive me if I don’t find that to be a redeeming quality in you.
Dr. Drake, I think you are right about that. I mean, if the jokes are truly hurting people, that’s no good, right. I don’t want my fellow dopers to hurt! I think I just see things differently, not only because I do love dark humor, but also because I honestly don’t feel anything more for a recent shooting at a Dark Knight premier than I do for the people who suffer every day in ways that don’t make all the news programs simultaneously.
ETA: No, thank you, Bob Ducca. Dead baby pics aren’t my thing. Now if you have any good dead baby jokes…
Well of course I do, dead baby jokes are always funny.
Really? Because I have a baby in my hand that JUST DIED!!!
Bob Ducca, you’re painting with an awfully broad brush. I found the joke funny, too, but I really dislike gore in visual media. I can’t watch horror movies at all. I don’t mind jokes about dead babies, but I don’t want to see pictures of them, even if I know the pictures are fake and nobody was harmed.
You don’t have the same sense of humour as others in that thread. Brilliant. Pin a medal on yourself and go cheerlead with the smile police. Let other people cope in their own way.
I know I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m firmly against killing babies for comedic purposes.
Jokes in a thread about an ongoing tragedy while people remain in the hospital fighting for their lives aren’t funny.
We aren’t first responders. We’re a bunch of random assholes on the Internet commenting on someone else’s tragedy that we saw on the news. The idea that we need to “cope with it” somehow is a bit much. This wasn’t 9/11.
Too soon, VT. 
Does this mean we can never joke about cancer, or heart disease, or aids, or old age, or any of the many other ways people remain in hospitals fighting for their lives every single day?