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

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

I'm generally the kind of guy that doesn't take life too seriously and that can find humor in pretty much anything.

With that being said, my rule is, "It's always funny until someone gets hurt. Then it's fucking hilarious!"

 

[V8 Ninja]

I think the quality and context of a joke has a lot to do with how many people find it offensive. In this instance, there is no narrative and specific timing behind this joke, so we have no idea what the context is/was. If the topics of Hitler and Pokemon happened to cross paths and this user took advantage of that crossing, then the joke would be slightly entertaining compared to if it was isolated. Also, the joke is naturally not very good.

EDIT: Also, making jokes appropriate to your respective audience is very important. Not being a racist/sexist/whatever-ist is a very good step as well.

 

[Thistlehart]

Humor is primarily derived from "tragedy", yours or someone else's. Think of any joke or piece of funny you can remember, and consider who it harmed and in what way. Comedy and tragedy are intertwined and compliment each other.

In short: No, humor is infinite. Its only limit is in the delivery.

Therefore, when someone says (or posts) something stupid and insensitive, it should not be blown off with, "It was a joke, dude, lighten up."

Any decent comedian will tell you that humor must have good delivery and timing to be humor.

If it has neither, it's not a joke. It's just someone being an asshole.

It's not being funny. It's insulting to the audience, and the "comedian" deserves to be ridiculed for their lack of skill.

 

[gazumped]

In which case, I think I'm more intelligent than you are, because I think it's implicitly ignorant to believe that things are as simple as you make them out to be, not to mention that you also imply that restricting freedom of speech is the way to go. And also because you don't realize that regardless of the joke, someone somewhere will always find a way to be offended and we'd be living in constant hell if we had to cater to everyone who gets offended by anything. But then, since you're obviously less intelligent than I am, why should I care about what you think...hmm...

Oh yeah, because I don't want to be arrogant! I think the ship has sailed on the patronizing part, but by god I will not be as arrogant as to completely disregard you just because you have a stupid opinon

I dunno, in my country freedom of speech is restricted. Verbal abuse, particularly if classified as 'hate speech' (racist/homophobic/etc) is enough to get a person arrested in the UK, so it's not that restricting freedom of speech 'is the way to go' but here it simply 'is the way it already is'.

Someone will always find a way to be offended, for sure, but what I'm talking about isn't hurt feelings, it's actual effects on society that are perpetuated by using ignorant language. Even stuff like saying that someone is 'being a woman' for being cowardly perpetuates the idea that women are lesser than men, for example.

And people say "oh, it would be too hard to be careful of what we say, could you imagine if we had to actually THINK about the CONSEQUENCES OF OUR ACTIONS, man, that would be so much hard work and just not as much fun." Well, quite frankly, tough. Because if it's a choice between you not getting to laugh at a rape joke and a rape victim not having to mentally relive their trauma (or a rapist thinking what they've done is 'funny'), it shouldn't be hard to realise which of those things is more important.

 

[MintberryCrunch]

I would say me and a group of my friends have some of the darkest humour imaginable, but I honestly don't find anything wrong with that. The thing I've found when I discuss my sense of humour with most people is that they seem to believe we laugh at horrible things happening because they're happening and it's incredibly funny. It's not. I laugh at horrible jokes and dark humour because I'm not supposed to laugh at it. The simple fact that we're all laughing about a joke someone's made about some tragedy is funny within itself; the fact that it's such a shocking thing to say makes it funny, and that's where dark humour comes from for me.
Also, making light of extreme acts of human violence or terrible ordeals in history, such as the Holocaust or 9/11, is in my opinion the best way of getting over it. If you can't make light of a situation, how else could you go about getting past it? Trivialize it, and suddenly any point the perpetrator was trying to make becomes invalid.

 

[Loonyyy]

Yes, humour can go too far. Too far is when you cease to amuse those you would be humourous too and simply shock or offend them. You can underdo humour and bore people, and overdo it and annoy people. And it all depends on the audience.

If you know your audience, and you cater to them specifically, this shouldn't be a problem. But of course there's "Too Far". At a certain point, you're pointlessly annoying and offensive to the extent that most people don't find you amusing, and you've failed at humour. So long as you keep amusing the people you want to amuse, you're fine.

That's not to say that if you "Go too far" you should be shut up, just that most people you want to be amused won't be, and they'll avoid you.

Captcha: "I know nothing!".
Shut the hell up captcha.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

I don't think humour can ever truly go "too far". There are definitely types of humour that are inappropriate for certain audiences (for example, you wouldn't have a singalong of that song going at a Holocaust Survivors support group or whatever), but I don't believe there's any type of humour that's universally offensive to the point that everybody in the whole world is disturbed by it, which is the point at which I would consider it "too far".

Basically yeah. I have two cases where humor, while still technically humor, does go too far and makes you a dick.

If the humor involves physically hurting another person to an extreme degree on purpose. (Which i think is universally too far, this doesnt include making light of a past event this involves YOU directly hurting someone to create humor against their will)

If the humor is designed ONLY to be funny BECAUSE it hurts someones feelings and makes them upset. (This is the rape jokes to the rape victim scenario)

I wont argue on if it still counts as humor. I will argue that if you break those rules youre a total dick and i have every right to never interact with you ever again.

I dont really like humor thats entirely based on offence. Its just so... lazy. It feels like the bullies humor; Humor derived from the simple punchline of "LOLOLOL SOMEONES FEELINGS MIGHT BE HURT" or "LOLOLOL THIS IS A SOCIAL TABOO!".

If Humor is offensive AND funny thats cool. If humor is only funny BECAUSE its offensive thats a weak joke in my view. Offending people is easy, everyone has a topic that will hurt their feelings because they have an emotional attatchment to it. Its just the laziest form of joke writing because its just based on naming a few easy social taboos out of the blue.

 

[mgirl]

Most of the time I would say it depends on the context. For example, hearing a dead baby joke from a comedian who is known for that type of humour, thats fine, but to do something like... deliberately seek out someone who has recently lost a child and start telling them dead baby jokes - not acceptable.

In the right context, I honestly believe that humour should not have a limit. The second you start picking things out and saying 'this isnt ok to joke about, but everything else is' you're running into bad territory, but at the same time everything depends on context.

 

[Winthrop]

I voted depends. I think your tact is very important. If you just go "Haha Hitler killed people!" that isn't even really a joke and the lack of humor coupled with offensive themes makes it offensive.

On the other hand, a good comedian can keep the offensiveness down while still being funny.

 

[RodSk8Dude]

I draw the line at dead babies. It's not so much that I'm offended, just that there are no circumstances under which I would find them funny.

I'm OK with dead baby jokes. I even know a site that only have these jokes. I like dark humor and, though most I read are not really that funny, I still like them BECAUSE they are so dark.

But then at one point in that previously mentioned site, there it was...
...a joke about RAPING a dead baby...

...so...

...I guess... ...everyone has a different limit to how far they think a joke can go, but they still have it.

 

[mooncalf]

There are lines for everyone, and those lines can be drawn for very good reasons - and yet differently for each person. I'm reminded of the articles on the Escapist and other gaming news sites that were a backlash against people using "Rape" in their gaming lingo, it was a convincing argument and it changed my behaviour. Otherwise the line for me is Bill Hick's speculations on the sexual deviances of Rush Limbaugh which I will not link here.

Instead the slightly more palatable but still pretty wrong musings of Tim Minchin on the subject of dark humour.

 

[Lionsfan]

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

You mean Heil-arious?

The thing about humor is that it's subjective. Any comment can cause offense if the recipient is sensitive enough and anything can be found funny if /b/ is to be believed. The example image for instance is in really poor taste, but is also really funny.

Yeah I guess I can see that point. I'm sure a lot of people would probably get fuhrer-ious when they saw that picture

 

[Agayek]

Just so you know, I dug the lyrics in that image. Sounds like something a modern Thrash band would come up with.

Or a Japanese anime theme song writer.

Just saying.

Edit: OT: I don't really think there's ever a point where humor goes "too far". Certainly, some people will find some humor distasteful, and that's definitely their prerogative, but as long as the joke is not meant to be malicious, then anything is acceptable IMO.

 

[Piorn]

I don't have a limit, personally, because I can tell fiction from reality.
That doesn't mean there shouldn't be a limit for people who base it on actual beliefs, or people who are too stupid to distinguish and just follow the crowd, but I trust there aren't many of these people around.

 

[ninjaRiv]

Someone recently threatened to put me in intensive care due to a joke I made recently. The funny thing is, I was about to delete the joke on Facebook just before the threat came. Not because I thought it would offend people but because I didn't find it as funny as I thought it was when I first posted it. However, when I got the threat I defended that joke like it was the funniest fucking thing in the world, just because I had a point to make.

Everything should be laughed at. If you don't laugh at something, it becomes scarier and bigger than it should be. But yeah, there's lines you shouldn't cross and I learnt that from experience (not the thing I just told you about. Fuck that, violence shouldn't stop you making jokes). I told a rape joke to a rape victim. Not on purpose, it was a heat of the moment thing but it helped me realise that if a joke is going to really hurt someone, don't fucking tell it. But, most of all, a joke has to be funny enough to excuse the offence you might cause. So, telling a joke is all about timing and understanding your audience.

As for that image, it's funny in certain circles. I can see myself laughing like crazy with my friends at a bar after a few beers and, while sober, I can appreciate the thought that went into it but it's not very funny.

 

[SpectacularWebHead]

Yes there are times humour can go too far. Operatively when it's making light of a other groups, becaus ethen it becomes victimisation. Rape jokes for one, are somthing you just shouldn't go near. Racism, dead babies, dark humour over-all is just sick in some cases. Obviously this post on the internet, a place where every racist, homophobe, anti-semite, douchebag and the like are granted anonymity this post is probably going to go south on me fast. Just fuck man, why do you have to make humour by taking the piss out of other people or horrible situations. Black Humour really helps you just lose your empathy and stop taking how other people feel into account.

 

[Dark2003]

Its cant still be too soon to not be able to laugh at this, Jewish or not. He's dead and his ideals are ridiculous. After the swastika i was laughin hard.

 

[Auron225]

If too far would be a really offensive joke that 1 person on earth finds funny and everyone else is disgusted by then Id say yeah it can - cause the joke just isn't worth existing in my opinion.

 

[Daveman]

Not really, I mean if it's a joke it's not likely to be offensive, mind you some racists etc often confuse the word "joke" with "insult".

I mean it can still be tactless, but I wouldn't say a joke itself on its own crosses a line.

 

[The White Hunter]

So recently a friend of mine showed me this image:

Spoiler

And the question "Is there a point where humour can be taken too far?" was raised. So I figured why not ask the Escapist's community.

What's your opinion? Can humour never go too far because someone will always think it's funny, or should it not be taken too far, like this image might have for some people?

I am incredibly offended.

Your means your, as in belonging.

You're is a contraction of you are. Damn it internet why don't you ever learn!?!

OT: That's a bit much, and not even that good of a parody tbh it's kinda clunky. I sadly don't find genocide funny.
Puns are great though.