A coworker once remarked that she felt there were certain topics that should never be joked about. When asked for an example she named ‘sexual harassment at work.’ I immediately thought of an old SNL skit where they made a faux PSA about sexual harassment in the workplace. Here it is: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/sexual-harassment/2751966?snl=1
The coworker watched the video and thought it was ‘appalling’ Why? because “there’s nothing funny about sexual harassment and it trivializes a serious problem.” I can understand someone perhaps thinking this particular parody might be unfunny because they thought it had bad dialogue, the wrong cast, or was in some other way poorly executed, but as far as an entire subject being forbidden to parody I have to disagree. Certain subjects require a great deal more sensitivity than others - and this would definitely be one of them, but I’m convinced comedy can sometimes open the door and help us begin discussions about very serious issues by allowing us first to laugh at ourselves.
Do you think there are certain subjects that should categorically never be joked about? Religion? Death? Politics? Venereal disease?
I’m with George. Some things are only funny in a Cards Against Humanity game with a close group of friends, but I don’t think anything is never to be joked about by anyone.
No, I don’t think there are any topics that shouldn’t be joked about.
As ever -
How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb?
THAT’S NOT FUNNY!
As long as a joke is funny and/or pointed, it can be made. Since humor is subjective, there can’t be a definitive answer to whether or not a joke is funny. Thus some people are going to be offended, but that’s often the point. Making fun of the humorless is funny, but the humorless aren’t going to agree.
Sure, but some people won’t laugh at themselves, and therefore you can’t begin a discussion. Which is what some people want to avoid.
I have a thicker hide than most people, as well as different triggers. So I don’t find a lot of safe spaces where I can expect to be taken seriously when I don’t deserve it.
I think any topic is open to being joked about but there’s a difference between laughing at a phenomenon from the outside and laughing at a phenomenon from the inside.
There was a controversial cartoon associated with Amistad (can’t find it to link to). I was asked if I thought it was racist. I didn’t know who had created it and it made a difference to me.
There’s a fundamental difference between a joke with the subtext of “We used to be rounded up and shipped as slaves to be worked and raped and otherwise exploited. Deal with it!” and one of “We used to capture you black folks and ship you to America as pieces of property, ha ha!”.
All depends on the context: who is telling it, who the audience is, and as Carlin said, how you construct the joke.
For example, Shodan’s anti-feminist joke could only be funny if one sexist was telling it to an audience of fellow sexists. Oppressive persons or classes telling jokes about those they oppress serves a specific purpose, not a very savory one.
As to the OP’s coworker, I thought one of the main uses of humor was to trivialize serious problems.
Anything can probably be joked about. But for general issue people (as opposed to a professional comedian) you better know your audience. There are some things I may joke about with Person A that I know are just off the table when Person B is around. Also know yourself. When my BIL died from a suicide there was an odd dynamic within the family, a sort of gallows humor, as a result. But from someone outside the close family or to make one myself to someone outside the family? Not so much. That kind of event isn’t funny to us even if its part of how we dealt with the situation.
Look, you can’t help what you find funny. Oftentimes, it’s the inappropiateness that makes the joke funny.
The “be Attractive” skit is indeed funny. However, if you actually do any of those things in real life… well, you’re just an ass. And if you think that skit bares any semblance to how women actually feel about sexual harassment, you’re a stupid ass.
It’s not so much the joke itself that is the problem, it’s the people listening to it and their ability to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Must say that there is no topic “never appropriate” for humor.
There will be however an inappropriate time, place or manner; it may be inappropriately composed; teller and audience may be in different pages. That much is true.
What there should be is a distinction between “making a joke about/involving subject X” and making subject X just a joke. THAT is where the objection should be. Though it’s not that hard to tell which is which most of the time, some are too sensitive or not enough when deciding that.
My point is that the joke is funny even if - indeed, partly because - a certain kind of feminist refuses it.
You can’t force somebody to get a joke, but jokes about how somebody lacks a sense of humor work better on some level if the subject of the joke reacts in a way that shows, sure enough, they lack a sense of humor.
Nobody likes to be laughed at, but that doesn’t mean anybody is automatically exempt from being laughed at. That’s hardly unique to feminists, of course. It applies to lots of groups, at one time or another.
I believe that there are places and times when specific types of jokes aren’t appropriate (no dead baby jokes at a baby’s funeral, for example) but no, I do not believe that there is any subject that all that is blanket inappropriate everywhere.
(ETA should have read the full thread before giving my example–that seems to be beating a dead [del]baby[/del] horse.)
I have a pretty dark sense of humor. No subject is off-limits but there are certain contexts in which “I’m just kidding” just makes you an asshole.
Generally, if your goal is to offend, the humor falls flat. If your goal is to generate laughter through some incisive insight into the human condition, and it happens to be offensive, that’s another deal.
