Joking about a tragedy: Is it ok to do it?

The guy · 20-03-2008 03:41PM

No way Jose. Have a bit of respect.

Hail 2 Da Chimp wrote: »

I think you have to wait 27 years before you can joke about something really bad...

22.8 years according to South park.

Das Kitty wrote:

I think Tommy Tiernan said once that the best reaction he gets to jokes are the ones where the audience initially laughs but then realise that it was bad taste. The HahaOoh effect.

Jimmy Carr said that aswell, probably before but he's much better at the sick joke than Tommy Tiernan.

Das Kitty · 20-03-2008 03:48PM

No way Jose. Have a bit of respect.

Coulda been Jimmy Carr I think it was on the countdown of the best comedians or something a couple of months back that I heard it and they were both on it.

thelordofcheese · 20-03-2008 03:48PM

No way Jose. Have a bit of respect.

BLOBBY wrote: »

i lost my son i would not like 2 know that he could be turned into a jock

I don't think he's going to become scottish anytime soon, so i wouldn't worry.

Collie D · 20-03-2008 03:49PM

Das Kitty wrote: »

Coulda been Jimmy Carr I think it was on the countdown of the best comedians or something a couple of months back that I heard it and they were both on it.

What was Tommy Tiernan doing on it?

Collie D · 20-03-2008 03:50PM

thelordofcheese wrote: »

I don't think he's going to become scottish anytime soon, so i wouldn't worry.

I was wondering if anyone would be bad enough to point that out...poor form, man

GhostInTheRuins · 20-03-2008 03:51PM

No way Jose. Have a bit of respect.

Collie D wrote: »

I was wondering if anyone would be bad enough to point that out...poor form, man

Yeah me too. I had one lined up but thought I'd better not. :pac:

unreggd · 20-03-2008 03:53PM

After a certain length of time its ok.

Sometimes it pi55es me off though

like, one time in work this fat gob****e was jokin about that 21 year old who got decapitated, like, 2 days later, and it got to me, cos he was a young, successful student with a long successful life ahead, but now hes dead, and some fat slob who doesnt have a job is takin the piss

Das Kitty · 20-03-2008 03:56PM

No way Jose. Have a bit of respect.

Collie D wrote: »

What was Tommy Tiernan doing on it?

Heh.

He did feature in the list but he was mainly on it as one of the talking heads.

His recent bit on Down's Syndrome has people in work here up in arms.

The Master · 20-03-2008 03:56PM

unreggd wrote: »

Sometimes it pi55es me off though

like, one time in work this fat gob****e was jokin about that 21 year old who got decapitated, like, 2 days later, and it got to me, cos he was a young, successful student with a long successful life ahead, but now hes dead, and some fat slob who doesnt have a job is takin the piss

No need to loose the head over it mate

biko · 20-03-2008 04:01PM

All of the above.

You can joke about anything imo.
But then it's a mix of time passed and the crudeness of the joke. Some jokes are not funny even though they have dead black polish knacker aids babies in them.

Al_Fernz · 20-03-2008 04:02PM

No way Jose. Have a bit of respect.

thelordofcheese wrote: »

I don't think he's going to become scottish anytime soon, so i wouldn't worry.

Somebody had to bite that one. I was thinking of a jock more along the lines of AC Slater though!

thelordofcheese · 20-03-2008 04:08PM

No way Jose. Have a bit of respect.

Collie D wrote: »

I was wondering if anyone would be bad enough to point that out...poor form, man

Well it was by way of proving a point, you can make a joke about anything, but i think my previous effort shows the gulf between a joke and a good joke.

HammerHeadGym · 20-03-2008 04:13PM

No way Jose. Have a bit of respect.

phantom_lord wrote: »

my username on a poker site was madeleinelol during the summer, and it got banned for being offensive. some people have no sense of humour

My username when playing Day of defeat is 'NaziSuperman' and for some reason i always get Team killed and banned from everyones site. No one (including the people who banned me) eveer had a prblem with gnatzi superman however. All people are cunts

HammerHeadGym · 20-03-2008 04:24PM

No way Jose. Have a bit of respect.

Dudess wrote: »

Something like The Producers, which takes the piss out of nazis, is brilliantly funny.
But a joke about, say, a child getting thrown into an oven at Auschwitz - it's just not funny. And I'm not getting offended on behalf of a particular community - I literally think it is just not funny.

Thats a fair point Dudess but that more gets down to personal taste. Wheter or not you find something funny has no relevance to wheter it is ok to joke about the subject. For example, I do not find little Britian funny, However I couldn't care less about their subject matter or deliverance.

Adam · 20-03-2008 04:33PM

No way Jose. Have a bit of respect.

Raspberry wrote: »

I beg to differ.

excerpt from The Diarrhea Anne Frank

~SomethingAwful.

I lolled.

Everything is funny. The difference between funny and tasteless is the joke tellers genuine feeling on the matter. For example, Madeline McCann going missing is awful in my opinion, and I don't give a toss about the parents tbh but my heart goes out to Madeline herself. However, when I heard this little gem:

Knock Knock

Who's there?

Not Madeline McCann anyway!

... I laughed my effing ass off! Reason? Mostly because it's clever. But my real feelings on the whole ordeal remain the same, laughing at this joke did not detract from that.

thelordofcheese · 20-03-2008 04:36PM

No way Jose. Have a bit of respect.

HammerHeadGym wrote: »

My username when playing Day of defeat is 'NaziSuperman' and for some reason i always get Team killed and banned from everyones site. No one (including the people who banned me) eveer had a prblem with gnatzi superman however. All people are cunts

I know a guy who's handle was 'J00Killer' and got himself permabanned from several tournaments of Sup Com.
I'm still undecided if it was deserved though, but i'm stealing the name for the next lan i go to.

(if you don't get it, J00 means 'You' in l33t speak, but is often pronounced "Jew")

IanCurtis · 20-03-2008 04:44PM

Mirror wrote: »

Knock Knock

Who's there?

Not Madeline McCann anyway!

... I laughed my effing ass off!

Did you?

Some people will laugh at anything.

DubArk · 20-03-2008 04:54PM

All of the above.

thelordofcheese wrote: »

I know a guy who's handle was 'J00Killer' and got himself permabanned from several tournaments of Sup Com.
I'm still undecided if it was deserved though, but i'm stealing the name for the next lan i go to.

(if you don't get it, J00 means 'You' in l33t speak, but is often pronounced "Jew")

Whats that got to do with telling a joke? It's not even clever!:rolleyes:

HammerHeadGym · 20-03-2008 04:56PM

No way Jose. Have a bit of respect.

IanCurtis wrote: »

Some people will laugh at anything.

Yes. Of course they will. It is the very essence of comedy. The topic which the adults are discussing is wheter or not that is ok and where the line should be drawn.

thelordofcheese · 20-03-2008 05:08PM

No way Jose. Have a bit of respect.

DubArk wrote: »

Whats that got to do with telling a joke? It's not even clever!:rolleyes:

*facepalm*

It's got to do with whats considered in poor taste by people and in direct response to HammerHeadGym's story about his online username.

Roll your eyes elsewhere, young lad.

DubArk · 20-03-2008 05:16PM

All of the above.

Pighead wrote: »

Theres been a lot of jokes on boards that have been considered a bit too close to the bone regarding certain tragedies of late. The Maddie situation and 6th not getting the After Hours modding job being two that spring to mind. So is it ok to laugh about this sort of stuff or should we have more respect?

I think were straying from the origional question?

DubArk · 20-03-2008 05:17PM

All of the above.

thelordofcheese wrote: »

*facepalm*

It's got to do with whats considered in poor taste by people and in direct response to HammerHeadGym's story about his online username.

Roll your eyes elsewhere, young lad.

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Dudess · 20-03-2008 05:26PM

D.T. Jesus wrote: »

if the only reason you didn't find a joke funny was because of it's subject matter then you really, really need to lighten up.

But why? You can't help it if you just don't find it funny. I remember there was a joke doing the rounds a few years ago about a kid getting cancer - it was fukkin' horrible, but also it just wasn't in any way witty or funny. I didn't choose to not find it funny though, it just didn't tickle my funny bone. Does that mean I have to lighten up?

Adam · 20-03-2008 05:37PM

No way Jose. Have a bit of respect.

Dudess wrote: »

But why? You can't help it if you just don't find it funny. I remember there was a joke doing the rounds a few years ago about a kid getting cancer - it was fukkin' horrible, but also it just wasn't in any way witty or funny. I didn't choose to not find it funny though, it just didn't tickle my funny bone. Does that mean I have to lighten up?

Was it "What did the deaf, dumb and blind kid get for christmas? Cancer."? If so, I agree. That's not really funny, and not from any taste perspective, it's just not funny. But fyi, don't let anyone tickle your funny bone, it's usually rather painful and comes via the corner of a door etc.

Parsley · 20-03-2008 06:06PM

No way Jose. Have a bit of respect.

Dudess wrote: »

But why? You can't help it if you just don't find it funny. I remember there was a joke doing the rounds a few years ago about a kid getting cancer - it was fukkin' horrible, but also it just wasn't in any way witty or funny. I didn't choose to not find it funny though, it just didn't tickle my funny bone. Does that mean I have to lighten up?

I think the point of the post was more about acceptability than what you're describing there. Not finding it funny is grand, but being outraged or telling people "You can't say that!" is what the OP seems to be asking about. I think.

:edit: What about tragic puns like: "Pat the Baker died yesterday (genuinely). You could say he's brown bread!"

WoollyRedHat · 20-03-2008 06:09PM

I think it all depends on the audience as pointed out.

However some people who let's say tell Black colours usually tend to be racist ( not all the time now) in the sense they don't really care about the people they are telling the joke about, others don't understand how painful it can be for those affeccted.

A.K.A the holocaust, 9/11 etc.

GhostInTheRuins · 20-03-2008 08:03PM

No way Jose. Have a bit of respect.

Dudess wrote: »

But why? You can't help it if you just don't find it funny. I remember there was a joke doing the rounds a few years ago about a kid getting cancer - it was fukkin' horrible, but also it just wasn't in any way witty or funny. I didn't choose to not find it funny though, it just didn't tickle my funny bone. Does that mean I have to lighten up?

Maybe it was just a crap joke? I don't know, I don't know what the joke is so I can't tell. But, like I said, if the reason you found it unfunny was because it was about a kid with with cancer, then you need to lighten up, not if the joke was rubbish.

AckwelFoley · 20-03-2008 08:08PM

No way Jose. Have a bit of respect.

My favourite corner of the internet is the lolocaust.

Do you require further information?

Dudess · 20-03-2008 09:28PM

D.T. Jesus wrote: »

Maybe it was just a crap joke? I don't know, I don't know what the joke is so I can't tell. But, like I said, if the reason you found it unfunny was because it was about a kid with with cancer, then you need to lighten up, not if the joke was rubbish.

Still though, what if I found it unfunny cos it was so horrible? I wouldn't tell people "oh you can't laugh at that" but I just might not laugh myself because it's so horrible. It's not that I'd be secretly laughing away to myself and keeping it hidden, so I can't help it if I find it too horrible to be funny. I think it's unfair to tell me to lighten up in those circumstances.
And I certainly don't find every single bad-taste joke unfunny - absolutely not.

orestes · 21-03-2008 05:47AM

No way Jose. Have a bit of respect.

Nothing is off limits for comedy. Either everything is sacred or nothing is. But the no. 1 job of a comedian is to be funny. Shock and humour are not the same thing, although there is a certain cross-over. A joke not being funny and a joke being offensive are two different things. Jokes about the holocaust can be funny, while jokes about ryanair can be sh!t. The subject isn't what is or isn't funny, the joke is.

This might help clear things up a bit:

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=3av_qRR_DWc

Joking about a tragedy: Is it ok to do it?

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