This thread is in response the the “More Jokes” thread where @puzzlegal, moderating, said to take up any issues with moderations in ATMB. This isn’t necessarily intended to be a criticism of puzzlegal, but rather, an attempt to open a discussion of issues in an appropriate forum per the directions to take it up elsewhere. What should the rules or guidelines be? This ought to be interesting.
I enjoy jokes. In my opinion, jokes help us alleviate the stress of daily life. But there’s a danger zone where an attempt at humor unfortunately can step on someone’s feelings (unintentionally).
My hunch is that not many jokes that are truly funny are also totally guilt-free funny. I mean, I think it’s accepted as cliche to refer to puns as the lowest form of humor. Many of those are probably safe, not offensive…but few of those are hysterical.
By way of contrast, let’s look at the OP of the “More Jokes” thread, which doesn’t depend on a pun. The wife quips that the man shouldn’t toggle between the fishing channel and the porn channel…leave it on the porn because he already knows how to fish. Is it possible that that joke would not sit well with…
- A man who was always awkward socially, never had a dating life, no chance to practice pleasing a woman?
- A man with erectile dysfunction?
- A man whose wife henpecks him constantly?
My point is that often someone somewhere, through no fault of his/her own, can’t do the thing the joke derides. Is that 1% of the pie, 10%, 50%? Does it matter?
A lot of humor seems generic. I once heard a Polish joke because that’s the kind of joke they told where I grew up. Later I heard the same joke re-tooled as a blonde joke. When I went to college, a blonde Norwegian told it as a Swede joke. And I heard an Indian tell it as a Sikh joke. But for some, any of those jokes fall flat because it may be picking on someone. Maybe I’ll hear them as Karen jokes one day.
The essence of a lot of jokes seem to be based on differences. “This person was so silly that he…” Well some people weren’t merely teased for their differences: they were bullied, discriminated against, maybe even injured or killed for them. A joke about subgroups seems like trivializing their difficulties.
Or maybe a joke simply hurts a person’s feelings. Walk up to a morbidly obese person and tell that person a fat joke. Tell dead baby jokes to a woman who just miscarried. I can tell you that I excised the word “retarded” from my personal vocabulary when my nephew was born with Down Syndrome. When we’re down, we despise others making fun of us.
The story goes that Gilbert Gottfried was doing some standup shortly after 9/11 and said his flight was delayed because they had to make an unscheduled stop at the Empire State Building. Someone from the back of the room yelled, “Too soon!” Ah yes. Tragedy + time = comedy. Can we laugh about it yet? Well, someday maybe. But one person’s someday isn’t the next person’s.
I know if I told my brother a Trump joke he would probably enjoy it. That’s because I know he doesn’t like Trump. Post it in here and although most people might like it, a few probably wouldn’t. There’s that tried and true thing about knowing your audience. In here, we can’t possibly know that. Even if you studied each poster carefully, you don’t know who’s lurking. I like the Far Side cartoon where a man is shown with his dukes up, an elephant is shown with his dukes up and another elephant holds him back and says something like, “Easy, Ted, he probably didn’t know you were an elephant when he told that last joke!”
If I offended anybody with any jokes I’ve told, I sincerely apologize. In these days where sports mascots are changing and brand names are changing and so on, it’s time to reevaluate what’s really humorous. I was enjoying some Andy Capp Hot Fries the other day and I looked him up. I didn’t realize the name derived from “handicap,” as people from Northern England might pronounce it. He doesn’t beat his wife any more, because of concerns about depicting domestic violence. Hey, forget Ralph Kramden threatening to send Alice to the moon…wasn’t Lucy Van Pelt always curling up a fist and threatening to punch her brother?
I think some of these issues have been around so long and run so deep that maybe they slip under the radar. If we excise everything that could reasonably offend someone, we’d be left with puns and such. I do think there are more elaborate forms of humor, such as Kramer’s off-the-wall reactions, but those aren’t quick and easy joke forms. They depend on character development and so on.
I’ve tried corraling these thoughts and as you can see, I’ve failed. Your thoughts?
