Does humor suspend moral?

[Ranorak]

Either everything is okay to joke about, or nothing is.

I have never been a fan of the slippery slope argument, but in this case I'm going to use it.

What if, for instance, dead baby jokes are considered a no-go. Never go there, ever.
Because they are offensive. What is to stop this from happening to rape jokes, murder jokes or even religion jokes.
Soon everything is offensive to someone and we're stuck only making jokes about jews, because they can take it!

What does matter is timing and location.
If you want your joke to be funny, and not just raise eyebrows, make sure it's the proper time and place.

Even the greatest dead mother joke is going to fail at a funeral.

 

[Vegosiux]

I think it's unfortunate so many people seem to think that all reasons for getting offended are equal and that politeness should be ignored. And apparently disliking someone for what they say is censorship.

Heh, that's not even the worst. The worst kind are those who go all "Oh, so you dislike what I'm saying? I GUESS THAT PROVES I'M RIGHT AND THAT I'M JUST TOO SMART FOR YOU."

No foul cry about "censorship" irks me as much as that self-absorbed smugness...

But, as a personal opinion, the best jokes are far from polite, even when they're not even offensive. But, as I said before, audience is half the joke anyway, so...

 

[briankoontz]

It depends on what's being accomplished by the joke. The greatest comedians tackle the most difficult subjects, since they offer the most potential gain at the greatest risk.

When jokes work they free people to experience truth where before they only experienced pain. When jokes fail they just drive the knife deeper into the heart.

 

[Waffle_Man]

The problem with explaining or speculating about humor is that it's quite subjective. However, it's helpful to understand the foundation of what humor is. There are number of theories, but they all tend towards a general sense of humor being a way of coping with conflicting information. With this premise in mind, the "joke" isn't just the joke, but it's context of the joke.

If I see a person who I tend to not think is racist tell a racist joke, it's surprising. If I hear someone who appears racist saying something racist, it's just a racist being racist.

 

[Evil Smurf]

No, my example is this: Dead baby jokes are awful and not funny, they are not funny because they involve dead babies. It's not cool to kill babies and illegal in some places to get an abortion. Humour does not suspend morals or offensiveness.

 

[Feedmeketamine]

Well, if i remember right i posted this a while ago and got panned for it.
http://imgur.com/a/2YcNt
I dont mean any offense, i just think its fucking funny. I wouldnt go out of my way to insult anyone if they didnt deserve it (the artist here did) but this to me is funny.
Maybe im a misogynistic pig, maybe im not. I just found it funny. Humour can be cruel, but it doesnt make it any less humorous.

 

[Flutterguy]

Damn that title was misleading.. Looked like it was going to be wicked.

You don't give any lead to what extremes you mean, and ask a rather broad question.
Its an issue of taste not morality. Although people with extremely poor taste that I worked with seemed to screw up fairly often, and rarely do they take the blame.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

It depends on the intent of the humorist. In general though, people should grow thicker skin when it comes to offensive humor.

 

[TheUsername0131]

To this day certain professions and hobbies still remain acceptable targets. Lawyers and businessmen are such targets, and have been so since as early as 3400 B.C.

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.
-Mark Twain

The funniest things are the forbidden.
- Notebook, 1879, Mark Twain

Everything human is pathetic. The secret source of Humor itself is not joy but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven.
- Following the Equator, Mark Twain

 

[TheUsername0131]

In a word: no. Offensive so-called "jokes" are often aimed directly at disempowered, vulnerable minorities in humor derived by the privileged for the benefit of the privileged.

The class was learning about some revolt in which some peasants had wanted to stop being peasants and, since the nobles had won, had stopped being peasants really quickly.

- Soul Music, Terry Pratchett

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I sometimes feel that society is becoming way too sensitive, and that in order to combat the "evils" we see in the world we must be able to laugh at it and make it ridiculous. That doesn't mean necessarily trivializing a person's experience but rather blowing a scenario out to ludicrous proportions in order to distance ourselves from it.
Comedy is someone else's tragedy.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I sometimes feel that society is becoming way too sensitive, and that in order to combat the "evils" we see in the world we must be able to laugh at it and make it ridiculous. That doesn't mean necessarily trivializing a person's experience but rather blowing a scenario out to ludicrous proportions in order to distance ourselves from it.
Comedy is someone else's tragedy.

This is particularly true around the Holocaust. Look at Spielberg, he can whip out the silliest of movies with Indiana Jones and slapstick comedy involving nazis... and then he can make Schindler's List. Or in the case of Mel Brooks, "I'm the only Jew who ever made a buck outta Hitler". What better way of dealing with Hitler than laughing at him (NOT because of him, but AT him) for the rest of human history?

 

[TheUsername0131]

I've written two different responses to this and came to the conclusion I don't have any clue what your point is supposed to be. Do you believe that Terry Pratchett's black humor using a fictional underclass somehow undermines my own point?

No. I just wanted to insert some black comedy into the thread.

 

[Cette]

This can all be summed up quite simply. The most offensive thing a joke can be is not funny. The farther out into offensive territory you go they higher the risk to reward ratio becomes but the pay off is great if you can stick the landing.

You know just be prepared for the fallout if you fuck it up.