# U has AIDS, lulz! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 3, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-has-aids-lulz/541826 "2010-06-03T19:46:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hallucinex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba9def/32.png) [@Hallucinex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hallucinex)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-has-aids-lulz/541826/21 "2010-06-04T02:41:39Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > [Everyone has AIDS!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yC7HwPh6Es) [U.S. Launches AIDS-Awareness Campaign In Botswana: ‘You All Have AIDS,’ Says U.S.](http://www.theonion.com/articles/us-launches-aidsawareness-campaign-in-botswana-you,1801/) ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-has-aids-lulz/541826/22 "2010-06-04T03:54:39Z")
> [@horsetech](#): > > Even in the U.S., there are plenty of people who can’t afford ARV drugs, aren’t compliant with them, or occasionally are just dealt a bad hand in life and die of AIDS-related secondary infections like fungal pneumonia. Though the government has been putting in a ton of resourced to help out- so that the poorest populations with HIV and AIDS (I think around here’s it’s if you’re 1/3 below the poverty line or such), you can contact your hospitals and local resources and your medications will be provided to you at no cost. The rationalization is that by stopping it in the poorest communities, you can hope to stop the spread of it to others and have a better control on the disease. So really HIV/AIDS is not as bad if you’re extremely rich, and can afford all of the medications, or if you’re extremely poor and can get it at no cost via governmental or hospital programs and grants. The big revolution for HIV came around 1995-1996 with the [HAART Treatment](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiretroviral_drug), that’s the one that sorta changed the game on HIV. Another interesting link i found was this one about HIV & HAART in the UK [Link](http://www.avert.org/ukaids.htm). That site has a link to HIV basically from the 1980s up to then in the 1996 or so era. It’s a really big difference in how HIV has come, as a child I grew up in the 90s learning about the scary disease that is AIDS, but then in college, and further, it’s still a huge issue, but it has become more of a chronic issue in the USA, and in trying to control mainly it’s spread especially in impoverished areas. As one of my Professors said, Diabetes is just as bad a death sentence as HIV. Both can be managed by medications, and both require long term care with plenty of medications and costs. It’s just that AIDS is the scary killer that really puts the bad face on HIV, but HIV can be controlled and managed if it’s caught early and treated with excellent care- take Magic Johnson for example, he seems to be doing quite well, and I remember being a kid in the 90s thinking it wasn’t going to be long before we’d all be mourning for Magic… And now I watch the happy dude, a little heavier for the wear, but still looking QUITE well, on Sportscenter every day! It’s amazing how things have changed in my lifetime even. So yeah- for someone like my sister who was born in the 1990s, she’s growing up in the post-HAART era, where HIV is just another dangerous STD, one that could ruin your life, but it won’t kill you- it’s just like Hepatitis, and Herpes. That shit’s for life to her… but it’s not a big bad scary killer as it was for others, I can certainly see that now in today’s generation. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-has-aids-lulz/541826/23 "2010-06-04T09:34:12Z")
\*\*What’s red and goes round and round? \*\* A baby in a garbage disposal. **Who’s The Guy With No Arms and No Legs That Lays On Your Porch?** Matt! Why is the death of someone’s child a laughing matter? Why is the loss of someone’s limbs a laughing matter? Whenever you stop and ask “why is XXXX funny” - an answer is: humor is a complex thing and people often laugh at the pain of others. I don’t think that most people would really laugh at a dead baby, or a quadriplegic or someone with AIDS in the specific - only in the abstract. ---
**Author:** ![pope\_hentai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@pope\_hentai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pope_hentai)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-has-aids-lulz/541826/24 "2010-06-04T15:49:46Z")
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_1idKPSZfc) best song about the subject… careful, a couple of strong words. probably nsfw. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-has-aids-lulz/541826/25 "2010-06-04T17:03:22Z")
> [@InterestedObserver](#): > > I used to have an old ad from a magazine (pre-HIV “discovery”), like the 40’s or 50’s) with the headline, “Lose weight the way the movie stars do, with AYDS!” I don’t suppose it happens to have featured Rock Hudson? \>\_\> ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-has-aids-lulz/541826/26 "2010-06-04T17:28:45Z")
Wasn’t there a South Park or something about how the moratorium is lifted and AIDS is now funny? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-has-aids-lulz/541826/27 "2010-06-04T18:10:41Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Wasn’t there a South Park or something about how the moratorium is lifted and AIDS is now funny? Psst > [@Mijin](#): > > N.B. South park did an episode where AIDS was officially declared fair game for jokes. S06:E01. ETA: L[inky](http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103611): It looks like you might have meant [episode 2](http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103616), though. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-has-aids-lulz/541826/28 "2010-06-04T18:42:45Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It looks like you might have meant [episode 2](http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103616), though. Hmm wiki consistently describes that episode as the first of the season ([link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Has_Aides)). But other sources put it 2nd and say _Freak Strike_ is first. In this case, I’d bet it isn’t an outright wiki error; it probably got switched around in some schedules at some point. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-has-aids-lulz/541826/29 "2010-06-04T19:33:29Z")
The thing is, when AIDS first came on the scene in the early 80s, there were a whole lot of people who didn’t know any gay people . . . or they didn’t know they knew gay people. There were no debates about same-sex marriage or gays in the military. The only thing many people knew about gays what that a lot of them had AIDS. So AIDS = gay. This was fodder for all the jokes, as most of the AIDS jokes I heard were also homophobic. I’m sure there are still people who think only gay men get AIDS . . . or that \*\*\*every \*\*\*gay man has AIDS. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-has-aids-lulz/541826/30 "2010-06-04T19:36:12Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Psst Oops. I blame Firefox Ctrl-F search. Google wasn’t help in finding which episode either, I had it in my head that it was newer than that, possibly “Tonsil Trouble” but I see it’s not. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-has-aids-lulz/541826/31 "2010-06-04T19:55:47Z")
I don’t know anyone with AIDS, or even HIV. I don’t know anyone that’s lost an infant in a grinder. I don’t know any quardraplegics. These things are all very funny to me. The question I have for you, OP, is why should AIDS not be a laughing matter? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-has-aids-lulz/541826.md?page=1)