# Topics that are never appropriate to joke about **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 24, 2018, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379 "2018-01-24T14:12:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/41 "2018-01-24T19:51:12Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > "You can joke about anything. Its all about how you construct the joke., > > George Carlin > > [https://youtu.be/fwMukKqx-Os](https://youtu.be/fwMukKqx-Os) Of course Carlin got it right. I thought this was going to be about Tom Segura. The Canadian Down Syndrome society is demanding that Netflix censor his special because he uses the word retarded. His bit is not making fun of people with Down Syndrome. It is literally a riff on how we can’t use the word any more. I guess context isn’t important to some. Of course when a petition against him was posted he responded on Twitter with “Hey Netflix please don’t take my special down. That’d be so retarded.” ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/42 "2018-01-24T20:00:26Z")
There are no topics that are inappropriate for joking about - so long people find your joke funny. However, there are no jokes that every person will find funny. Also, this being America, there are no jokes that won’t offend _somebody_. Therefore we can conclude that no topics are appropriate to joke about, and in fact that there are no appropriate jokes. Sorry! ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/43 "2018-01-24T20:04:58Z")
I’m in the category of “any topic can be funny.” But that means I am happy to hear any jokes. I’m well aware that any number of folk are very ready to be offended by attempts at humor, though. When I was a kid, we joked about anything. Ethnicity, race, gender, death, impairments, sexual orientation - ANYTHING. In fact, there was some humor value solely in the offensiveness. I still believe there is some humor/cleverness in wordplay, or playing with expectations/norms. But these days, I am far more careful of whom I will share such humor with. Our society is such that certain attempts at humor could have legal or employment repercussions - be viewed as hate speech, harassment, etc. Whether I personally agree with that reaction, I have to acknowledge it. Oooh - maybe there is one category that is verboten - joking about bombs in an airport security line! ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/44 "2018-01-24T20:10:31Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > No. To me anyway, there is a certain kind of joke that is always offensive, and that is a joke made by those in power about those who are not, which plays to a caricature most comforting to those in power. > > Tell some black people watermelon jokes about pickaninnies and see whether they think they’re funny. I could definitely imagine a woman at a feminist-themed event starting with that joke and getting chuckles, though, couldn’t you? Maybe while introducing the idea of, say, making pussy hats, since sometimes humor is the best way to defang your opponents. “OK, I know sometimes we can have a reputation of being too serious. How many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb? THAT’S NOT FUNNY!” \ “But, seriously, sometimes humor can help, and perhaps there are times when even the most passionate advocate of the most noble cause needs to lighten up. Humor can also help take the wind out of the sails of your opponents. To that end, I think we should knit these hats…” I think, given the right joke teller, audience, circumstance, there’s no topic that is always taboo. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/45 "2018-01-24T20:16:21Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Aww, but lookit the widdle thing. It’s so cute! But it _could_ be large, and just a long way away. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/46 "2018-01-24T20:31:16Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > Look, you can’t help what you find funny. I often think people miss the point: they think “funny” is on one end of the spectrum, and “offensive” is on the other end. This is absolutely not true. It’s perfectly common for something to be both hilarious and obnoxious. “But it’s funny” should not be an excuse for being an asshole; but we also shouldn’t try to accuse someone of assholery by telling them they’re not funny, because that’s often a transparently false claim. > [@RitterSport](#): > > I could definitely imagine a woman at a feminist-themed event starting with that joke and getting chuckles, though, couldn’t you? I actually heard that joke years ago (back in the nineties, I think) from a pretty feminist woman. Something like “How many Harvard girls does it take to screw in a light bulb?” and the answer was (IIRC), “It’s Radcliffe, it’s women, and IT’S NOT FUNNY.” So, obviously a pretty old joke. But when a woman is telling it as a wry poke at herself, it’s way different from when a dude is telling it to smirkingly dismiss feminists. Obama, I think, summed it up best, after di Blasio made a joke about CP Time: > [@Obama](#): > > I was running a little late tonight. I was running on CPT. Which stands for, “Jokes That White People Should Not Make.” ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/47 "2018-01-24T20:37:53Z")
In the late 1990s, I read a commentary about this very subject that was written by a guy who belonged to a BBS (or whatever those things were called that week) for people who liked really bad jokes, gallows humor, etc. and just to see what would happen, he asked if anyone had heard any Princess Diana jokes. He was almost banned from the forum. Yeah, I remember those shuttle jokes after Challenger, and Columbia too. ---
**Author:** ![BobBitchin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@BobBitchin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobBitchin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/48 "2018-01-24T20:51:41Z")
Just stopped by to say EVERYTHING is fair game. I don’t think anyone has brought up cheap laughs. ( not offensive, but cogent to EVERYTHING IS OK) Fart jokes may be easy, low hanging fruit…but if your audience laughs or better yet pays… it’s funny. Beyond that I have no new content. Yes, funny is in the eye/ear of the beholder. Dead baby jokes are not good at the baby’s funeral. Some jokes are only funny because they are awful. Saying shitty things, then covering it with “just kidding” is ignorant, disingenuous, and a disservice to actual funny people. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/49 "2018-01-24T20:56:50Z")
> [@BobBitchin](#): > > Saying shitty things, then covering it with “just kidding” is ignorant, disingenuous, and a disservice to actual funny people. This is what I’m talking about, though! Something can be both funny and shitty. Someone can say something shitty and say “Just kidding” and be right, **and that doesn’t let them off the hook for being shitty**. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/50 "2018-01-24T21:03:00Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > 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. I disagree with your coworker that sexual harassment is something that cannot be joked about, but I do think that the particular video you linked isn’t funny to me and should not really be promoted because it trivializes a serious problem and reinforces blatantly false ideas about the topic. It relies on the false but common ideas that sexual harassment lawsuits happen over trivial matters (like making eye contact), that women welcome blatant sexual advances at work if a guy is conventionally attractive enough, that men are always looking to have sex with any woman near them, and that women deciding who they want to have sex with is wrong. It’s perfectly possible to think that dark humor is fine without thinking that skit is something that should be promoted. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/51 "2018-01-24T21:12:34Z")
Everything _South Park_ jokes about is inappropriate … ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/52 "2018-01-24T21:16:01Z")
People that tell jokes about their own cultural/racial/nationality/religion/gender/ethnicity are generally regarded as being a _wit_, the very same jokes told by someone from a different background would probably be regarded as a _bigot_. I thought Shodan’s feminist lightbulb joke was rather lame…but I ‘got’ what was funny about the joke. So I guess that makes me a sexist oppressor by some reckoning. For the purpose of objectivity and equal time, it would be interesting to maybe hear a few sample jokes about sexist oppressors. Does anyone know if they tell these sorts of jokes at Lillith fare type events? If they don’t, maybe some of the comic-minded here can devise some. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/53 "2018-01-24T21:16:08Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > … > But when a woman is telling it as a wry poke at herself, it’s way different from when a dude is telling it to smirkingly dismiss feminists. … I’m pretty sure you’re agreeing with me and expanding on what I wrote, and I certainly agree with what you wrote. I think **Ulfreida** (and maybe one other poster here) is disagreeing, however. She’s saying some topics are always forbidden and never funny. I’m not trying to get pitted here, but in the context of that very joke, my irony meter is straining to keep up. So, in order to avoid a pitting, let me be clear. That joke, told by some sexist jerk, would probably not come across as funny and may well be offensive. However, that very same joke, told by a feminist making fun of herself or her movement, could pull it off and it would be funny. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/54 "2018-01-24T21:17:27Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > I find school shootings are a _never_ humorous subject. So yes. Some things are better ignored when applying humor to situations. Yet Julie Brown’s ‘Homecoming Queens Got A Gun’ remains hilarious. I acknowledge that she’d NEVER get away with it today. ---
**Author:** ![BobBitchin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@BobBitchin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobBitchin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/55 "2018-01-24T21:21:30Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > This is what I’m talking about, though! Something can be both funny and shitty. Someone can say something shitty and say “Just kidding” and be right, **and that doesn’t let them off the hook for being shitty**. I think your right. My comment was about a narrow scenario in my head, and looking back, it was too specific of a construct for this type of conversation. :smack:😃 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/56 "2018-01-24T21:26:35Z")
Have you heard the one where a thin-skinned person walked into a Daniel Tosh standup routine? [It went about as well](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/10/daniel-tosh-rape-joke-laugh-factory_n_1662882.html) [as could be expected](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1&ei=IPloWvucIsnBjwSL2YGwCg&q=daniel+tosh+stand+up+rape+joke&oq=daniel+tosh+stand+up+rape+joke&gs_l=psy-ab.3...36903.42601.0.42892.18.14.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..18.0.0....0.iIt1pLuyG4k). ---
**Author:** ![Sveltington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@Sveltington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sveltington)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/57 "2018-01-24T21:28:51Z")
Either everything is fair game for humor or nothing is. I find humor in every situation; which is why I am no longer allowed to attend funerals.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/58 "2018-01-24T21:37:10Z")
> [@Darren Garrison](#): > > Have you heard the one where a thin-skinned person walked into a Daniel Tosh standup routine? > > It went about as well as could be expected. I posted the below before I saw your post, but clearly, Patton Oswalt addressed it better than I could have. * * * The problem I have is the knee-jerk ‘‘It’s comedy!’’ whenever someone makes a joke that probably does net harm to society. ‘‘It’s comedy!’’ does not absolve anyone from responsibility for the messages they put out into the world. The most obvious example I can think of is when Daniel Tosh screamed at some female heckler that he wished the men in the audience would rape her (or something.) Patton Oswalt wrote a lovely piece about the way people dismiss comedians’ complaints about hecklers and the way people dismiss women’s complaints about insensitivity to real issues they face. [Here.](http://www.pattonoswalt.com/index.cfm?id=167&page=spew) > [@Patton Oswalt](#): > > Let’s go backwards through those bullshit conclusions, shall we? First off: no one is trying to make rape, as a subject, off-limits. No one is talking about censorship. In this past week of re-reading the blogs, going through the comment threads, and re-scrolling the Twitter arguments, I haven’t once found a single statement, feminist or otherwise, saying that rape shouldn’t be joked under any circumstance, regardless of context. Not one example of this. > > In fact, every viewpoint I’ve read on this, especially from feminists, is simply asking to kick upward, to think twice about who is the target of the punchline, and make sure it isn’t the victim. > > … > > Just because you 100% believe that comedians don’t write their own jokes doesn’t make it so. And making the leap from your evidence-free belief to dismissing comedians who complain about joke theft is willful ignorance on your part, invoked for your own comfort. Same way with heckling. Just because you 100% feel that a show wherein a heckler disrupted the evening was better than one that didn’t have that disruption does not make it the truth. And to make the leap from your own personal memory to insisting that comedians feel the same way that you do is indefensible horseshit. > > And just because I find rape disgusting, and have never had that impulse, doesn’t mean I can make a leap into the minds of women and dismiss how they feel day to day, moment to moment, in ways both blatant and subtle, from other men, and the way the media represents the world they live in, and from what they hear in songs, see in movies, and witness on stage in a comedy club. I’m pretty disappointed that you think a woman being upset at someone publicly joking that she should be raped is evidence of thin skin. But Tosh is an unfunny piece of shit, so it’s not like his behavior made me think any less of him. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/59 "2018-01-24T21:43:18Z")
Compare to Bill Burr’s [genius rant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNnkDjMVJqE) at the citizens of Philadelphia when they wouldn’t stop heckling him. The audience was acting like drunk, heckling assholes so he spent the remaining 12 minutes of his set absolutely annihilating them. It’s insanely offensive but as he’s referring to the audience as a collective, and not punching down, I find it more funny than offensive. YMMV. ETA: This is a really good example of how subjective humor is, and how weirdly based on context it is. Because I can’t really fully explain why I don’t find Burr’s bit offensive, but I find Tosh to be an unfunny piece of shit. I suspect if this were a regular set of his, I wouldn’t be loving it, but something about the organic nature of his rage is pretty satisfying. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379/60 "2018-01-24T21:43:50Z")
As others have said, there is no topic that is always inappropriate for humor. There are, however, certain topics that are always inappropriate to certain people. Good luck finding out proactively which topic/people combos those are. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/topics-that-are-never-appropriate-to-joke-about/807379.md?page=4)