Controversial Humor

Is there such a thing?

Do you think there should be red lines when it comes to humor? or do you think EVERYTHING is allowed?

So lately it was all about Joan Rivers and the Holocaust joke.

Is it ok to tell Holocaust jokes?

Is it less or more ok to tell these jokes if you're jewish? (she's jewish)

What about slavery jokes?

What with all the other topics which will draw criticism if you joke about them?

Here's the joke in question:





And here's Joan trying to defend herself:




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Now I don't think she's a bad person, and I don't think she meant to harm anyone -- but bottom line is she does. Because others do not take it lightly and they find it offensive and disrespectful.

I just don't really see the point in trying to be controversial, as if it's the only way to make your jokes worthy. And you see it more and more with comedians.

You pose a great question. No joke is any good unless it is somewhat offensive. The most basic slapstick involves people falling down, getting hit over the head, etc., and from there it goes to things like the jokes to which you refer.

IMHO NOTHING is out of bounds, and every topic, race, creed, religion, whatever is fair game for comedy. This does not mean it is not offensive, nor does it mean everyone has to be forced to listen to things they don't like. But like so many things, with comedy there is no way anyone can start drawing lines.

Here's one of Britains most controversial comedians Frankie Boyle's supposedly darkest jokes. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTF-cyYOfUc

First of all its called Black Humour and it goes with somethin like this....

What do you do when a baby doesnt stop cryin and screamin?????

-You add more vaseline into the game!!!.......get it?!

NO WAY Stone her to death!
How dare someone joke about anything-
gee

Eeven the blacks should be upset about that! (rim Shot)

that is sick in my joke book!

I thought that was a priest joke.

Your telling me son

I would hate to be on the front row at one of his shows.

I know what you mean some of the stuff hee says at his shows make you cringe especially when he's singling out a member of the audience but he's usually hilarious. He was actually born in the same part of Glasgow as me he talks about it on thee Jonathan Ross Show

I think he is hilarious. So does Katie Price

I despise her it is truly ashame for Harvey but nobody would be making jokes about him if she hadn't forced him into the media with herr shitty tv shows etc.

Remember Don Rickles? He use to insult everybody, all the time.

One time years ago he was on a show with Frank Sinatra. Maybe it was a Roast, I'm not sure. Don looks at Frank and says, let me make you feel at home....and he pretends he's a gangster shooting a machine gun (a jab at Frank's Italian heritage/mafia)I remember my family kind of laughing but I know they were thinking wow, that's out there.

Granted the two of them were good friends but at the time it seemed kind of bold. As a matter of fact, would Rickles get away with it today???

At first I didn't like Rickles humor at all. Took some years for him to grow on me.


TIS

I think that people in comedy should have the freedom to cross those lines and be offensive. Not to say that everyone should appreciate it, or that the material itself is even going to be funny enough to be appreciated, but I feel like comedians should have the ability to go "too far" if they want to. A lot of humor is saying what other people aren't willing to say, and kind of calling out the strangeness of life, and I guess sometimes that becomes controversial. It mainly bothers me when a joke is made offensive just for the sake of being offensive... that doesn't mean it's going to be funny.

One stand-up guy who was never controversial in his material (that I know of), but who makes me laugh more than anyone else I've ever seen in stand-up, is Mitch Hedberg:

He still does. Rickles (who turns 87 in May) still performs regularly. Check out his website:

DonRickles.com

He also just celebrated his 48th wedding anniversary last month. Amazing!


Signor V.

Of course he would get away with it today, too be honest I thought it was rather tame. All you have to do is watch some of the celebrity roasts they do on comedy central. Now adays its ten times worse.

this may show what i mean.

Sarah Silverman is a good example here. When she began a lot of people thought she was crossing the line with all her talk about sex and her use of four letter words. today she's practically mainstream.

I'm of the opinion that any joke that perpetuates the marginalisation of a group of people based on their gender or race is a pretty harmful one, intentionally or otherwise.

Humour is a part of society; what makes something funny is its topicality or revelance, which is usually dependent upon a shared cultural understanding between joke-teller and audience. But humour also shapes society, contributes to society.

Any joke that contributes to the casualisation of racism or misogyny is as offensive as the atrocious grammar with which it's commonly written.

No racist jokes, please; no misogynistic jokes, please...

And anything which is worth controversy is probably better said seriously than in jest.

people who seek to place restraints on humor obviously don't understand it in the first place. if a racist or sexual joke offends you, maybe you should look to yourself and ask why you are so sensitive, rather than try and criticize others for making a harmless joke!

What about in the workplace FF??

DE NIRO have you ever been to a comedy show?? Most small-time comedians starting out use that strategy and the bigger they always have that act to fall back on. I mean if I ever do a show I'll give ya front row seats on the house

"boo hoo, poor me, somebody said something that i find offensive!" do the rest of the world a favor and get over it, we have much bigger problems to deal with other than some oversensitive crybaby who can't ignore things that upset him/her!

Exactly: like the marginalisation of women, homosexuals, black people, Muslims, etc., usually via "harmless humour" that is grounded on false perceptions and unhelpful stereotypes.

Serious (intended) racism is harmful and offensive for obvious reasons; casual ("unintended" and/or "ironic") racism is harmful and offensive for less obvious reasons.

But it's still harmful and offensive, and so I think we should strive to resist it whenever it pops its ugly little unthinking head up.

My take on it is that most humor is offensive to somebody or another. Personally I always found George Carlin to be hilarious, but all his commentary about religion is certainly offensive to religious people.

Same thng with other "sensitive" issues. I took note that the other night President Obama made a joke about how he has aged in office, and because of that he's not the "muslim socialist" he once was. I also remembera few years ago him explaining why he and Trump did not get along. He made some comment about how they never got along when they were kids growing up together back in Kenya. My point is he turned some of the nonsense abouty him on himself and made a joke of it. It also tells me that nothing is truly out of bounds. IMHO if people find someone offensive, then dom't listen!

While this is arguably true - that someone has to be the butt of a joke - it's not true that every joke contributes to the marginalisation of a group of people according to their gender and/or ethnicity.

A Charlie Chaplin gag in which a policeman falls on his arse is less harmful and offensive than a rape joke, for instance, for reasons that I hope are obvious.

This is problematic when a comedian is given a platform regardless of whether or not you listen.

The best way of eradicating harmful and offensive humour is indeed to listen - and then to not laugh, or to call it out, and to challenge and resist it with extreme inexhausible prejudice.

Mick, my young unKrautmick friend. You are spot on. "Comedy" is a reflection of our social ills. You have articulated the state of fucked-up-ed-ness quite well.

After the Ten Commandments, Jesus Christ offered an 11th Commandment, Love One Another, As I Have Loved You.

I can't understand why a black comedian can make jokes about white people, but white people can't make jokes about black people (political correctness). Is there a rule that minorities can make jokes about majorities, but not vice versa? If that is true, then in 2025 when whites are the minority in the USA, white comedians can make jokes about blacks, and blacks can't make jokes about whites?

Last week only about 5 minutes after meeting someone for the first time, he told me a racist joke, complete with racial epithets. I was offended, and mostly because he took me for someone who would actually find humor in it.

More and more comedy these days has become far out and controversial, it is just a sign of the times i guess. Everyone trying to be more outrageous than the next man.

I yearn for the days when people were funny just by being funny.

Having met the distinguished Counselor Klydon....whoa, you do not project the image of a person who would appreciate that kind of humor. A good kick to the groin might have been an appropriate response.

What even constitutes Controversial Humour in the states? `

Very Interesting I wish more people thought this way.