Poll: Can humour go too far? (potentially offensive image within)

[Haukur Isleifsson]

I don't think their is any one point, but there is definitely stuff out there meant to be funny that I think "goes to far". But that is a subjective opinion. I think that there is no thing that can't be funny for someone somewhere at some time.

 

[felbot]

i saw that one before actually, thought it was funny, so i guess my answer is no.

 

[PureChaos]

It can but it all depends on the audience. People place the bar in different places and even then that bar can change places.

 

[TheFederation]

it depends, with the image you used, i didn't find it offensive (but I'm not Jewish nor was I alive during Hitler), and it isn't making fun of anybody in general, Germans or Jews, it's just making fun of Hitler, which isn't that bad (though i do think people now underestimate him due to Hitler jokes online). it's when the joke is truly racist or anti-Semetic that the joke has gone too far, which this one hasn't.

 

[gazumped]

Instead, I'll ask you something. *Is it possible to have a public policy governing humour(?) that is inclusive of the sensibilities of all people without prohibiting subjects, like ethnicities or sexes(?) that avoids constraint of those who are mature and, frankly, sapient enough to entertain controversial humour for the moral wellbeing of those people who aren't? And further to the lattermost question, does that just depend which category of person is in the majority?

That's the series of questions I'm failing to answer when I say that I don't know what the answer is. Do you?

As awesome as it would be if there was one ideal way to talk about or two one another, if there is one I don't know what it is. I know I mentioned earlier that here in the UK we do actually have laws that restrict freedom of speech, and although I think it's right and good for a person who goes into a rant on the London Underground swearing at immigrants who shouldn't be in 'her' country ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQKFkxvhG_U ) not to get away with it (a person's right to swing their fist of verbal abuse stops when they reach another person's intimidated and marginalised nose), when it's something that's not explicitly hateful or aggressive it makes it harder to be able to gauge what the consequences of that could be.

Like that Tim Minchin video that mooncalf posted earlier (near the end of page 3). The song that the girl complains about being 'sexist' I first heard via a staunch feminist friend of mine. We both found the song funny and it didn't even cross my mind it could be sexist, merely cynical and unromantic (and equally applicable for males or females in a relationship). And while we can agree that sexist jokes can be detrimental to relationships between men and women, if we can't decide on what is sexist or not (for example), then how will we decide what would be restricted in this public policy, and who would restrict it?

Which is why, I guess, it's important for us to be responsible for ourselves and to be aware of how our language may be received or what it might encourage (or discourage). It's why it's good to have discussions like this, so that we can share perspectives and come out of it with a little bit of a better idea of what the consequences of jokes and language can be, even if no one can agree on specific rules we should be following.

 

[Xdeser2]

To me, there is a line, but its not set in stone, it moves based on the company your with or the situation(s) going on around you. However, if there is an ever more visable line than the others, its the fact that if you go up to someone who's a victim of rape and joke about it to them, your a massive **** and deserve whatever critisim comes to you. Or another, joking about someones death at their own funeral. Other than that, just realize what good taste is and you'll be fine.

 

[Dfskelleton]

No, the only humor that offends me is the humor that people put no effort into making.
I laughed at the picture, but then again, I am renowned for my horiffically dark sense of humor. My conversations with freinds often go to very dark places.

However, as others have mentioned, it's probably not a good idea to make Holocaust jokes to Jewish people, or other similar instances.

 

[miketehmage]

Everyone has their own line. If we stopping making jokes that cross lines, we have to stop making jokes about everything ever. I don't particularly like jokes about dementia but I won't shit on people that make them, because to them it's funny.

And by the way that image is fucking hilarious.

 

[gravian]

Really it's not that can humour go too far, but what society considers unacceptable in terms of material and intent. I think the whole point of humour is to be able to make fun of anything but it should be subjective, and you really need to think about the content and get opinions. If the joke or whatever is funny enough, and doesn't just play to stereotypes or is just presented to get laughs for the shock value, then maybe it will be acceptable enough for an audience, but it depends. In my mind if a Jewish or black or homosexual audience genuinely finds a joke that parodies their stereotypes or whatever funny, then it's OK for a comedian to use it, as long as its just one part of a routine.

I thought the image was quite funny and because it parodies a children's TV show it doesn't seem offensive. But I agree with other posters that you shouldn't try to come out with it to a Jewish audience, or show it to a Jewish friend unless he's said before that he really is cool with this sort of thing.

 

[Jakub324]

Most of my family seem to believe that if anyone is even slightly offended, it shouldn't be said, to which my reaction has always been "Well...". I believe that as long as the humour isn't discriminatory, it should be allowed.
Remember when Frankie Boyle said Rebecca Adlington had an unfair advantage in the pool because she had a face like a dolphin? My mum was outraged. I didn't think it was very funny, but if you're in the public eye, someone is going to make jokes, and they're not gonna be nice, so I believe you should only be a personality if you won't whine when the "laughs" start flying.

 

[AnarchistFish]

I don't think there's a line humor can cross, and holy hell was the given example hilarious

Basically this^^

And I think there's a difference between gaining pleasure from something and using it to laugh

 

[mitchell271]

No, not really. There's a time and a place for everything. For example, you wouldn't take a Cyanide and Happiness book to a hospital ward full of children with cancer. Or show this one to a pregnancy ward.

 

[Owen Robertson]

Humor often offends people who weren't even targeted by the joke. Sometimes it can go out of the comfort zone of someone and then we all have to take a sensitivity course. People who get offended at a comedy show are fucking pathetic. Everything said there is humorous and meant to get a laugh or a rise out of you. The internet however, being very ambiguous in its purpose nowadays, is not a place exclusively for any one subject, so a joke can be taken out of context or offend someone. You don't go to a Holocaust museum and yell the song in the picture at the top of your lungs. It's insensitive. It's not necessarily hateful or bigoted, but it's clearly going to hurt someone's feelings and there's no artistic purpose behind it. It's purpose is either comedy or offense, and since we have no context I'll go with Comedy (I'm an optimist).

 

[Owen Robertson]

I don't think there's a line humor can cross, and holy hell was the given example hilarious

Basically this^^

And I think there's a difference between gaining pleasure from something and using it to laugh

I didn't find it super funny. Maybe I'm jaded from all the Nazi jokes I told back in the day, like "What's the difference between a jew and a pizza? A pizza doesn't scream when you put it in an oven."

 

[Not Matt]

Yes. There comes a point where you just have to say ?no, don?t make fun of that its too much?
Don?t believe me? Go up to the kid in a wheelchair and make a ?you can?t walk ha ha? joke or talk shit about a survivor of a terrorist attack. Go ahead. Make a joke about 9/11 mocking the people who died???????..there. wasn?t that fun?
No?
Exactly

Comedy stops being funny when you step over the line of joke/insult. jokes are funny, insult jokes are (I will admit) kind of funny, insults just make you look like an as*hole


Bad phrasing I know but you see my point right

 

[BathorysGraveland]

Or a Japanese anime theme song writer.

Just saying.

Ya, someone else already brought that up. Just to clarify, I don't watch Pokemon, have no interest in it whatsoever. So I can hardly be expected to recognize lyrics to a song I'm not familiar with.