I remember that and also thought it funny.
But to be honest, I’ve never felt bad about thinking something is funny.
I just don’t hold anything sacred enough to feel bad about laughing at it.
I laughed too, but my laughter was directed at the astonishing gullibility of the media bodies that accepted/reported the story as legit.
Right after xmas one year I stopped at my landlord’s house to drop off my January rent. My landlord was all dressed up in a suit and tie.
I made a big deal about how good he looked, assuming he was headed to a party. He interrupted my praise with, “I guess you haven’t heard my mother died”.
I 100% thought he was making a bad joke. I had seen his mother recently and she was fine. I chuckled, then realized he’d started crying.
I recently got around to watching Kentucky Fried Movie for the first time.
I found it pretty funny, but even as I was laughing at a lot of the material I was realizing how the constant barrage of sex/racial/gay jokes would be absolutely unacceptable if the movie were made today. For example, a sketch in which an Evil Knieval-type stuntman is dressed up in full gear for his most dangerous stunt yet - walking up to a group of black guys shooting dice, stepping into the middle of their circle, yelling “N____RS!” at the top of his lungs, and taking off running.
It works as a joke, but the Twitter discourse if you told it today would be unbearable.