Well one could argue for both but the only people that ive ever seen get away with comments like that are old grizzled homicide cops in books and movies like jerry orbach in law and order
When I make comments like that they chuckle and call me a cynical sick heartless bastard and/or a slap on the head
If I’d heard you say it, I’d have thought it was tasteless, and at most, I might have said “That’s sick!” I don’t think it was heartless, but neither was it particularly witty to me. Just one disinterested opinion…
well, I’m known (IRL) for my sick humor. I once proposed to have a “so and so memorial bake sale” as a fund raiser (where the ‘so and so’ was a former client who’d decided to play hold that shotgun w/a swat team, results were not in his favor)
Timing and audience my friend, timing and audience (not that I personally have been known as good judge of either)
John Ashcroft unilaterally outlawed off-color, insensitive jokes in the wake of 9/11 (“If you potentially hurt someone’s feelings, even though they are not around and will never hear it, the terrorists will win.”) You are going to warm up the chair for Zacarias Moussaoui.
Next time, in the best Sgt. Hulka voice, tell them “Lighten up, Francis.”
No matter where you are, what you say, how you say it, what you wear, how you walk, where you scratch, what you buy, how you drive, and in general how you even breathe, there will always be at least one snivelly-ass crybaby who will somehow take offense or feel the need to point out your shortcomings to validate their own existence. Life is too short to have to worry about whether or not a comment might put a hackle in someone’s shorts.
No matter what you do, you are going to piss somebody off so you may as well make yourself laugh in the process. Personally, I got a chuckle out of your comment, but then again, I’m an insensitive bastard. Saying that in the office, perhaps tasteless but funny. Saying that to her family… bad form.
[sub]bye, bye Miss American Pie, drove my Chevy to the Levy but the Levy…[/sub]
So wait, what do you think is possibly “witty” about your comment? Off-color, sure, but witty, no. You told it to get a reaction, and you got it. It wouldn’t offend me though, so I agree with the others here who say “know your audience.”
Possible response: Tell the pathetic whiner that they are being insensitive to insensitive people. Sure, you are insensitive but hey, you were just born that way. You realize that some people have the ability to always know how others feel, and thus avoid offending them but you (much like someone that is born color blind) lack that ability. Tell them that you are shocked at their lack of empathy.
