A sense of humor. What's funny and what isn't?

[Cleita]

I've got to admit I will laugh at anything, if it's funny, no matter how politically incorrect. Okay, so I just draw the line at what's not funny. Where do you draw the line? Will you laugh at a racist, religious or sexist joke if it's truly funny?

Okay, as an example of this, did anyone see the joke on SNL where they connected the election of Ahnold to God's wrath. On the news segment they put up a picture of Ahnold while talking about the recall election. Then they put up a picture of the fire and the faux anchor said something to the effect that God had also cast his vote.

Now for people who lost property, pets or loved ones and are suffering from the effects of the fire this is truly a tragedy and I shouldn't laugh at this, but I did and I should be ashamed. How about the rest of you?

[trotsky]

1. It's part of our coping mechanism.

To laugh at something means you have developed a sense of control over it.

Or at least that's my silly theory.

On Edit: Yes, I will laugh at highly inappropriate jokes. I won't repeat them, but I'll still laugh.

[soleft]

2. Someone at the NY Halloween Parade was the Staten Island Ferry

he kept bumping into people.

In the same breadth that I said that's sick and tasteless, there was what felt like a laughlike muscle spasm kind of thing.

[Fixated]

3. ....

I actually prefer really offensive jokes. I'd rather have people be shocked than laugh outright.

Watch: what's the difference between Jesus and a painting of Jesus? It only takes one nail to hang the painting.

Why don't Jewish girls get AIDS? Because they don't fuck assholes, they marry them.

Yes, it's all stereotypes and such, and I don't agree with it. But come on....

[Westegg]

23. Jew jokes

Your joke: "Why don't Jewish girls get AIDS? Because they don't fuck assholes, they marry them."

Uh, I don't get it. This strikes me as anti-Semitic. I'm thinking back on my last six Jewish girlfriends, and none had a problem with anal sex. Most, I daresay, rather dug it a lot. For that matter, a "Jewish girl" can't get AIDS from "fucking an asshole," because if she did "fuck an asshole," she would have to be wearing a strap-on. Hello? Can't get AIDS from a strap-on, unless you're dangerously cavalier about cleaning it.

All six of those "Jewish girls" have, since leaving my bed, married damn well, I'd have to say. By that I mean nice guys, artists, intellects, well-grounded, well-rounded, liberal cats. Some of them weren't even Jewish! (I'm a WASP myself.) My new bride is a "Jewish girl," and frankly, I think she married well. But I'm not going to discuss her sexual predilections here because, after all, some things are sacred.

[Fixated]

40. .....

Holy crap, you've got to be kidding.

[Az]

4. Mel Brooks on comedy

Tradgedy is when I get a splinter, Comedy is when you fall down an open sewer and die.

Only Mel Brooks could write a music number called Spring Time for Hitler.

[Syncronaut Seven]

5. If it's racist, sexist or sick, it better be brilliant

That's the only thing that's going to mitigate the lecture you're about to recieve. ;)

[TrogL]

6. I have no sense of humour, but a finely tuned sense of wit

The epitomy of humour is the dead baby joke.

[Fixated]

7. ......

Yes! I have so many.

[TrogL]

33. Oh, dear, somebody locked my thread

That's OK, I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. :evilgrin:

[Cleita]

34. I guess we know where DU draws the line.

:evilgrin:

[Droopy]

8. Hello, my name's Droopy

I'm too busy being Droopy to have a sense of humor. I never laugh at anything.

[Cleita]

20. Hmmm.

What could we say to tickle your funny bone?

[VermontDem2004]

9. Not sure what a racist joke is

I know of jokes that involve color and stereotypes, I remember black man told me a joke which basically was a joke that involved color and stereotypes but I have to admit I laughed but I was high at the same time as well.

[Cleita]

10. There are white racist jokes.

Jeff Farnsworth did his whole comedy act about rednecks and even had a sitcom about it for awhile. As a Latina I really do enjoy Paul Rodriquez and George Lopez even though they milk stereotypes in their humor a lot. Margaret Cho has a go at Koreans.

[VermontDem2004]

12. About the first sentance I know what you are talking about

But he makes fun of them using stereotypes, I don't see it nearly as racism but making jokes using stereotypes, I actually don't know of many comedians who don't tell jokes involving race and stereotypes.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

24. I enjoy jokes that make fun of Anglo Saxon idiocy.

Because you have to admit...there are some white folks that just bring it onto themselves...case in point? Those southern racist idiots who believe we shouldn't mix the races. Yeah. They're a really good example of why Anglo Saxon heritage is the best. LOL I've heard BRuce Bruce, Steve Harvey, and Bernie Mac tell some wonderful jokes about blacks. They are hilarious...Thank God for Comedy Central Presents.
Duckie

[OneBlueSky]

11. I laugh at absurdity . . .

and, since just about everything these days is absurd in the extreme, I'll laugh at just about anything . . .

[Westegg]

28. laugh away, bluesky

Yes, laugh away. I agree: It's the only sane response. But don't be bent-over and guffawing when you're about to be broadsided by the humorless and dangerous among us...

[Westegg]

13. Humor/Arnold/Hellfire

DON'T be ashamed. For starters, anyone with a pulse, a TV and a marginal appreciation for the absurd is gonna make the connection between the "Governator" and the fires. Hell, several days before that "SNL" broadcast, I emailed a Southern California friend of mine (I lived there for a dozen years, and experienced the ravages of fire first-hand) and I made essentially the same Arnold/Fires joke. She thought it was funny, even as her neighborhood was filling up with smoke. Good 21st-century humor has to be topical, somehow. And, in this instance, it in no way detracts from the seriousness of that terrible fire situation. It would be a different thing, of course, if the "SNL" joke had to do with kitty-cats on fire, or folks getting boiled to death whilst trying to seek refuge in their swimming pools. THOSE jokes would be in bad taste. But it's like someone once said: "Life's a tragedy when viewed close-up, and a comedy when viewed from a distance." Or words to that effect.

[Cleita]

15. Good anlysis Westegg.

Welcome to DU. :toast:

[Droopy]

17. Welcome to DU, Westegg

:toast: :bounce:

[Westegg]

27. ha!

Thanks, Droopy. I'm gonna spend the next hour watching and laughing at those jumping, beer-clinking Smiles icons you sent to me! Damn, I wish I was a happy and content as they are!

[tsipple]

14. The Holocaust Isn't Funny

Very hard to make any sort of joke about that episode in history.

Famines and landmines aren't very funny.

I can laugh at almost anything, though. I think America could stand to laugh more.

[On the Road]

16. There's a Line Somewhere, But It's Hard to Define

My mother once said: "You don't think Rush Limbaugh is funny? Not even when he makes fun of liberals?" Um, no I don't. He just strikes me the wrong way. I think Andrew Dice Clay is completely studid and boring, although Howard Stern can be quite funny.

A lot of depends on whether you feel personally threatened by a joke, or whether you able to just laugh it off. For example, I love seeing black stand-up comedians on BET make fun of white people -- seen some hilarious stuff there, and it's very instructive to see things through someone else's eyes.

I even remember some thoroughly racist things from my childhood that I still think are kind of funny. (I'm going to duck and cover after writing this):

For three years, I went to a virtually segregated middle school in eastern NC. My classmates would sing about LBJ (to the tune of "Jesus Loves the Little Children"): "Johnson loves the little negroes, all the negroes of the world/ He will buy them homes and clothes..../ He will bow and kiss their feet, he will even suck their meat/ Johnson loves the little negros of the world.")

They would also sing, to the tune of the Daniel Boone TV theme song: "Daniel Boone was a man, yes a BIGGGGGG man,/ But the bear was bigger, so he ran like a negro up a tree.") And of course, they did not say "negro".

Although if lynchings and segregation were still being practiced, it might seem a lot more sinister.

[7th_Sephiroth]

25. absurd joke warning

i dont really care about taste or peoples feelings hence, this joke

A priest and a rabbi are walking down the street
10 year old little billy walks by
the priest says to the rabbi, "lets take little billy behind an alley and fuck him
The rabbi replies "outta what?"

[XNASA]

18. Poop and vomit jokes offend me.

Racist jokes only offend me if they're meant to harm or hate. If they're just cutsy, then it doesn't affect me all that much.

Sexist jokes offend me as well.

But I love jokes about politicians.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

26. Well, whatever you do, don't watch Comedy Central

YEs, I realize a lot of my posts today have been Comedy Central gushes, but that just stems from watching it all weekend, and laughing my ass off.
Duckie

[4323Lopez]

35. So I guess you don't like fart jokes either

Come-on poop and vomit is funny, just by the "nature" of it.

[THUNDER HANDS]

19. Andrew Dice Clay is a great example

His stuff was racist, homophoic and anti-women...but as his peak, nobody was funnier than Dice and no standup comic was ever able to pack arenas to see him perform.

[wickerwoman]

21. I like Terry Jones' appraisal...

he said a joke is like a metaphor- you take two things that don't seem to have anything in common and put them together and the result is a different way of looking at the world.
My problem with a lot of racist, sexist, religious and homophobic jokes is that they don't give me a different way of looking at the world. For me humor is linked to the joy of discovery- some connection I hadn't thought of before. The connection of the fires in California and God's wrath at the election is funny because it's a different connection. About the tenth time I heard it, it wouldn't be funny. Most anti-PC stuff isn't very original and doesn't show me anything new about the world (although it may show me something different about the person employing it.)
I used to hear an expression in Ireland "neither big nor clever" which I think can be applied here. If it isn't big it better be pretty damn clever and the problem with most anti-PC humor ala Rush Limbaugh is that it just isn't.

[Westegg]

30. Limbaugh a funnyman?

I agree pretty much with what you say, bezdomy. But I must have missed the portion of Rush Limbaugh's life in which he was a "humorist." I've been aware of him for more than a decade. But when was he EVER funny? He always struck me as the definition of stick-up-yer-ass party-line potentate. But I keep reading these articles that situate him with Howard Stern, Imus, Dennis Miller, whomever... I simply don't get it! Man, even massive overdoses of OxyContin couldn't loosen up his sphincter. As we all now know.

I wish him well, though. Recovery is for everyone, even the despised.

[wickerwoman]

31. I would be the last person in the world

to describe Limbaugh as a humorist, but that's how he describes himself and how his listeners think of him. Any time Limbaugh gets called on the fact that he's talking out of his ass (in this case, the same thing as lying through his teeth) he says "Well, I'm just an entertainer and my fans understand that."
It's his way of avoiding responsibility for his statements- not an unusual tactic among anti-PC humorists.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[VermontDem2004]

29. Oh really?

:eyes:

[Bake]

32. What Is Funny:

In no particular order, and far from exhaustive:

Richard Pryor
Chris Rock
Farts
Lawyer Jokes
Darryl Hammond as Bill Clinton
Boondocks
Farts
SNL in the old days
John Belushi as Samurai Anything
Pie in the Face
Really bad puns
Naughty limericks
Monty Python skits
William Shatner singing Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
Farts
etc.

Bake

[blondeatlast]

36. I draw the line at the dead baby thread.

[TrogL]

37. I don't know what to call this style of humour

but I use it a lot, with good effect. Basically, it's just saying something "over the top" or somewhat dadaist.

A few minutes ago I got called upstairs for a user complaint that made no sense whatsoever. When I got there, it turned out to be somebody else's problem. When I was asked why I came up, I said that I "wanted to see the problem in person and have it and hold it and throw thing things at it".

"Have it and hold it" is an obscure Warner Brothers cartoon quote. "throw things at it" is over the top.

What do you call this? Sarcasm? It isn't nasty, just wierd.

[JanMichael]

38. Apparently I have a lousy sense of humor...

At least that's what people have been telling me lately.

<sigh>

I had so much wrapped up in a stand-up comedy career too...

[blondeatlast]

39. I laugh at you all the time, JanMichael . . .

Edit: make that with you . . .

:evilgrin: :hug:

[JanMichael]

41. Join the club, I laugh at myself constantly!

No, I mean with myself;-)