Poll: Is it okay to make straight jokes?

[Drake_Dercon]

I know this may sound like a stupid question but just hear me out:
I have two friends, of opposite sexes and both homosexual. They themselves are very close friends. I was visiting at one's house (on a completely different agenda than theirs, as both of my aforementioned friends were there, working on a project) and my two friends were in one room and wanted to be left to their own business, not to be disturbed by my other small group of friends kicking off a GURPS campaign. For a moment, I was inclined to make a snide remark about them being "closet heterosexuals", but I but my tongue. For some reason it seemed obscenely rude and I don't know why. I'm straight, so it should logically follow the blonde makes blonde jokes, jew makes jew (and I apologize if that sounded offensive, I didn't mean it that way) jokes social rule, but for some reason, I didn't think it would. And I honestly don't know why.

Just something I posted to clarify this:

Edit: No, it isn't a veiled gay joke. That's like saying that a joke two straight people of the same sex walking into a room together and closing the door (joke being: to be "alone") isn't a gay joke, but a veiled straight joke. While I admit my idea wasn't that funny, I don't think it was a "thinly hidden joke at the expense of my two homosexual friends". Also, making gay jokes in the presence of one of them is a very bad idea. She takes offense to anything that might possibly be construed as an attack against homosexuals (not because she's a bad friend, just because she's a really touchy person).

But somehow it still sounded offensive, and that's my dilemma.

 

[Marter]

Jokes are jokes, and just that. Make whatever jokes you want.

 

[randomsix]

It's too bad you didn't make the comment; the wit in it is rather good, I think.

 

[Radeonx]

As long as it is fine to make jokes on the opposite end, and you don't have any malicious intent, I think it is perfectly fine to make jokes about pretty much anything.

 

[DJDarque]

I don't see why it would be bad. It's not really derogatory. Maybe it's just me though.

 

[Canid117]

I have to be honest... I have never heard a straight joke.

 

[Bobbity]

It depends who you tell them to, and how they're intended. I can't see anyone taking offence though, simply because it's the majority preference.

 

[PhiMed]

Is this thread serious? Or is this a hypothetical for your own curiosity?

 

[Dwarfman]

My very basic rule for derogetory humour is 'If you can't take it, don't dish it'

If your straight and you make gay joke then you must expect the same in kind and vice versa. It's all part of the fun.

 

[Risingblade]

It's a joke about someone's sexual preference so depends on the person

 

[Brawndo]

Too bad I can't imagine a single joke about heterosexuality that would make a single straight person upset or offended. I'd just be like, "Yeah, vagina is great" and walk away.

 

[Ladette]

I've never heard a funny straight joke, but I wouldn't be offended by it.

And now a joke.

What do you call a lesbian with long fingernails?

Spoiler

Single

 

[spartan231490]

I know this may sound like a stupid question but just hear me out:
I have two friends, of opposite sexes and both homosexual. They themselves are very close friends. I was visiting at one's house (on a completely different agenda than theirs, as both of my aforementioned friends were there, working on a project) and my two friends were in one room and wanted to be left to their own business, not to be disturbed by my other small group of friends kicking off a GURPS campaign. For a moment, I was inclined to make a snide remark about them being "closet heterosexuals", but I but my tongue. For some reason it seemed obscenely rude and I don't know why. I'm straight, so it should logically follow the blonde makes blonde jokes, jew makes jew (and I apologize if that sounded offensive, I didn't mean it that way) jokes social rule, but for some reason, I didn't think it would. And I honestly don't know why.

Jokes are jokes, and cannot be offensive. If someone is offended, the problem is theirs, not yours.

 

[Skorpyo]

Straight jokes?

Wait... how?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Living in a society in which heterosexuality is seen as the norm, and everything else as lesser deviations from it, I'm not sure exactly how you could make an offensive joke about heterosexuality.

 

[Ladette]

This is the closest thing I could find to a straight joke, taken word for word from Yahoo answers.


One afternoon a little girl excitedly approached her mother, and announced that she had learned where babies come from at school that day. Amused, her mother replied, "Really, sweetie? Why don't you tell me all about it?"

The little girl explained, "Well... OK... the mommy and daddy take off all of their clothes, and the daddy's thing sort of stands up, and the mommy puts it in her mouth, and then it sort of explodes, and that's where babies come from."

Her mom shook her head, leaned over to meet her eye to eye, and said, "Oh, honey, that's sweet, but that's not where babies come from. That's where jewelry comes from."

 

[Labyrinth]

Straight jokes?

Wait... how?

You breeders, it's not inconceivable you know.

The above being a joke, and breeders being a derogatory slang for heterosexuals likening them to livestock who exist to produce offspring to further the industry, it is an example rather than an insult.

As for the OP's question it very much depends on the individuals in question. See, offensive jokes can be simply funny in a context where everyone understands them for what they are. The issue which arises from saying such things out in public like say, on an internet forum, is that not all of the audience is accounted for and some may be fundamentally offended whether that was the original intention or not. The same can be very true of certain styles of comedy, such as black comedy and deliberate political incorrectness.

Of course for this to work there needs to be no ill intention on the behalf of the joker, no malevolent prejudices which they disguise as humour. Again, this makes public jokes problematic because people who don't know the joker don't know whether they're trying to be humourous or genuinely insulting.

I'd say that it's a bad idea to make jokes which could be offensive unless one is certain that no-one around will take them the wrong way.

 

[kjrubberducky]

I am a blonde, who tells blonde jokes, to blonde friends and coworkers. We all laugh.

Who can you laugh at, if you can't laugh at yourself?