I don’t know. I can’t view the clip, but this seems like a failure to me: he responds to Rivers calling Adele ugly by calling Rivers ugly. I thought we were supposed to let people look how they want these days. If you’re going to say you can’t judge people based on their appearance, you can’t do it either. And putting that aside, he’s saying Joan Rivers is old, bitter, and has had a lot of plastic surgery. No shit. That’s the same thing Joan Rivers has been saying about herself for 20 or 30 years. You can do that as a roast, but as a critique of Joan Rivers it doesn’t pack a lot of punch.
Folks who are easily offended are a big problem … an even bigger one is folks who are easily offended on the behalf of other folks. This goes way beyond tasteless comedy. Every time I turn around, some group or other is offended. The Atheists are offended by a cross, the Muslims are offended by a ham, the Tighty Righties are offended by a veil, it’s always something. It’s students offended by other students praying, only they too want to pray, to some other mythical figure, and all face the same direction on a special rug.
People, are oversensitive.
Not to change the subject, but it’s the same problem … lighten up. Some of these things aren’t that big a deal.
How dare you tell me to lighten up! As a person who is gravitationally challenged, I demand an apology for your tasteless remarks!
And a cookie.
No, two cookies. And a coke.
As a pepsi drinker, I’m offended! Also offended on the behalf of RC cola drinkers.
Oh, come on!
That was only aimed at the … uh … darker members of the audience, if you know what I mean…
If Mel Brooks had done the same joke it would have been on the Oscar highlight reels of every network. Joan Rivers is a polarizing personality and doesn’t get the same latitude. I thought it was a good joke. And the Jennifer Lopez one was better.
Mel Brooks wouldn’t have done that joke. It’s not at all his style.
So when someone references the Holocaust doe sit come to mind? You folks find it conducive to humor to think of the holocaust?
Again, my issue is it’s not funny and why do you want to think about the Holocaust ‘in passing’ as it were.
And if you don’t think about the Holocaust when the Holcaust is mentioned, maybe you are not sensitive enough?
Nobody said they think the Holocaust was funny. They’re saying you can make good jokes about it just like you can with anything else, and lots of people have done so. Ever seen The Producers? It’s one of the funniest movies ever.* You may not find that stuff funny yourself, but that’s a matter of personal taste. Please don’t confuse it with a moral stand.
*Ok, possible nitpick: there are lots of jokes about Hitler, the Nazis, and World War II, but nothing about the Holocaust itself.
The category of “jokes in poor taste” is not a matter of absolutes. Yes, one CAN make a joke about anything, but the question is whether one SHOULD… and also what’s the appropriate place and time. Appreciation of jokes is a matter of individual taste/attitute/life-experience.
Yeah, one can joke about suicides, but don’t expect such a joke to be well-received by a mother whose daughter has just killer herself. Jokes about Alzheimers, yeah, a laugh riot, but not to a family dealing with a parent with dementia. Jokes about dead babies, sure, but there’s a number of people who have suffered the death of an infant, and don’t expect them to roll on the floor. There are plenty of examples of politicians making a joke about a race/ethnicity, and not knowing the microphone was on: a joke that might be acceptable told to a small group of friends is NOT acceptable when broadcast to millions of people. Jokes about gender (specifically, negative jokes about women) that were funny in the 1950s are offensive today. And so it goes.
There’s no absolutes. Humor is relative to the audience. IMHO, Mel Brooks is a genius: he knows where to draw the line so that his jokes in excruciating taste are not upsetting/offensive to a majority of viewers. As Marley notes, he does NOT joke about the Holocaust itself. Other comedians (and politicians, for that matter) are not so adept.
Additional thoughts: it sometimes depends on the POINT of the joke. Mel Brooks is making fun of Hitler and neo-Nazis, but his attitude towards the jokes (the point of view of the jokes) is a focus on how producers (and theatre-goers) will pay to see things in dreadful taste.
Joan Rivers joke is making fun of people who were murdered.
There’s a world of difference.
Wow. That couldn’t be more wrong.
I could say that it is a joke making fun of the murderers for sure.
Perhaps Joan called you up at home and told you a secret joke that she hasn’t shared with the rest of the world?
Mostly she was just saying that Heidi Klum looked hot.
On a level just beneath that, she was saying “Hey, people, we must never forget the Holocaust. As a comic, I will keep the memory alive by referencing it in jokes.”
But, please, if Joan did actually call you at home and tell you a different joke, let us know what that joke was so that we can discuss.
Ugh, it’s so frustrating. The woman is a Jew whose husband lost his whole family in the Holocaust. I think she has an understanding of the gravity of the situation. Like she said, why don’t people save their outrage for Mel Gibson and people who AREN’T joking with their antisemitism?
good on her. from this day forward whenever I hear a questionable joke I’ll just ask myself What Would Joan Do.
There’s no problem with not finding the joke funny because it hits too close to home. That’s fine. The problem is in making a large public outrage about it, trying to stop people from making or enjoying said jokes. You know it was a joke. You know that Joan Rivers does not actually think the holocaust was trivial. Any offense you feel is irrational.
Not to say that offense really is rational. But that should lead you to be circumspect on how much outrage you show. The offenderatti are so despised not because they get offended but because they make a public showing of their offense far out of proportion to the crime.
I’ve always suspected that Mel’s problem has been that very few people understand his sense of humor.
The imagery is what makes it funny.
Exactly. All the slaves I have sex with consent.
He’s this generation’s Andy Kaufman, no doubt.
Her latest George Michael dig: They had a football player on Fashion Police (not sure who – he wore a purple uniform and his wife is pregnant) and she said “Now, you went from wide receiver to tight end, kind of the opposite of George Michael’s path.”
She does have a hard-on for George Michael.