Off Topic The Last Laugh

Just watched the fascinating film, ‘The Last Laugh’ that involves interviews with actors, comedians and concentration camp survivors discussing the ethical dilemmas of using the Holocaust for humour. Some amazing, funny people are interviewed and well worth watching.
It’s been briefly touched on other threads but was wondering.....how far do people on here think you can go with humour ?

Personally I can laugh at most situations.....however appalling some might say that is, as I feel you’re laughing at a situation, not an actual event (if that makes sense).
Just ‘cos someone might laugh at a paedophille joke, doesn’t make them in agreement with paedophillia.....like wise someone who laughs at a holocaust joke, doesn’t make them a Nazi.......what do others feel ?

Quote of the film for me was a holocaust survivor who was talking of a discussion he had with his Rabbi.....
He said....”Rabbi, I want to be cremated when I die”
Rabbi says “No you cannot do that”
Survivor says...”What about my parents” ?

 

are you trying to tell us that you are coming out as a Nazi paedophile

 

A fat Nazi Paedophile

 

In a world where the fried egg emoji apparently offends vegans, the Little Britain writers are apologising for some of their past characters etc the days of edgy jokes seem sadly numbered.

 

I’m not so sure.......to me there has always throughout time been a dark, warped sense of humour. And I think some might say the more warped and offensive it is, the funnier it becomes.

 

There is so much doom & gloom in the world that if we can’t have a laugh about a situation or take the piss out of ourselves, to me, it makes the situations even sadder.

They say you should always try to take or make a positive out of a negative so by joking about something, isn’t that what we are doing?

l know there are boundaries but the bleeding heart society would have us removing all laughter from life in case we offend someone or something.

l’ve experienced pain for most of my life and by making a joke about myself or of those around me or about life itself, helps gets me by and puts a smile on my face, rather than a frown. I know l might go over the top at times but hey, l rather be laughing than crying.

 

Have to say there are some things I would not tell jokes about not find funny if I heard one.

Paedophilia and the anihilation of six million people (do we sanitise it by giving it a name,) are two of those things. There are others for me too.

Race is an interesting one but the way it is going, one will only be able to tell a joke that laughs at one's own race and even that is going to require caution.

There are some very funny folk around who are rarely offensive - Tim Vine, Michael McIntyre and Milton Jones to name but three.

 

True that.

 

Gallows humour can be the best kind - dark, but it's all about the timing. I've been in some ****ty scrapes in my time, and you can only get through these with a bit of humour.

The politically correct generation just seem to be too happy to be easily offended. I used to like Frankie Boyle (and still do - he's doing a great show on BBC Scotland at the moment, travelling around the country and meeting the locals whilst preparing for a tour) but I saw him live once and his jokes could have been perceived as really offensive - I wasn't offended, I just didn't find some of them that funny. It wouldn't make me run off onto Twitter and have a rant about him though.

 

I would struggle to put Michael McIntyre and funny in the same sentence, but that's what's great about comedy - each to their own.

 

So I ask you what’s ok and what’s not ?
Would you find a joke about ‘The Inquisition’ funny and acceptable.......but not one about the holocaust ? What would be the difference....time ?
This film really is worth watching

 

Funny was thinking of Boyle....I can’t stand the bloke and find most of his stuff pretty offensive (Like the Harvey Price rape gag)......but then I question myself and ask why I’m offended at that when I’ve heard even more offensive stuff about even more taboo subject....eg Madeline McCann, and not been so offended.

Foe me it’s an interesting subject.

 

My grandfather was killed at Auschwitz.

He got pissed and fell out of the watchtower.

 

Lol, I love that joke and told that to a guy years ago....leaving it ages for the punchline.....he still remembers that years later

 

I suppose some might be offended by it, though. The thing is, while it touches on the holocaust, it's not really about it. To me it's just a funny joke.

 

Here's a quick interview with him and Richard Osman from a few years ago. He talks about his regret regarding a rape joke, but it's more to do with getting his facts wrong than the actual joke. He then has a rant about private schools,,which is actually quite funny....

 

Heard a few jokes that have made me suck in a breath thinking that’s a bit close to the bone but inside I’m trying to suppress the laugh so personally I don’t think I have any boundaries for comedy.
Jimmy Carr tells some pretty horrendous stuff but he warns everyone to expect it and so if offended don’t go or watch his clips.

 

I went to see Jimmy Carr at the Bearcat Club in Twickenham when he was just starting out.....my initial thoughts were that he was rubbish and not funny but after about 3 mins he had everyone in the room pissing themselves with laughter.....he isn’t like a lot of comedians who do a build up joke, it’s more like untold oneliners that bombard you..

Funniest of the night was.....

What’s worse than finding a worm in your half eaten apple ?

Being gang raped by your uncle and his mates.........

 

Complex question Staines and I doubt I have the definitive view.

There has to be an element of folk drawing a line at what they feel uncomfortable with that others might not. I support that and am generally not in favour of censoring what others think / say since we have laws that are supposed to do that.

However, the laws cannot cover every eventuality which leads to the grey areas that often cause the mischief. As far as I know, it is not illegal to tell a joke about violent sex inflicted on a non consenting person but I don't think you'll find such a joke in our joke thread and I severely doubt any of us tell such jokes!

Time is an interesting factor. You raise the question of whether it's OK to tell jokes regarding events of hundreds of years ago as opposed to more recent similar dark events. I think not. If something crosses that line of decency, I don't see how merely the passage of time makes that dark event less reprehensible and more open to humour.

I suppose the two big ones that are commonly involved in humour are race and religion.

Regarding race, many cultures have a fall guy that is the butt of humour for that race. My folks used to tell jokes about a man called Nasraddin Hodja - check out this link https://www.ottomansouvenir.com/Nasraddin_Hodja/Nasraddin_Hodja_2.htm and a few years back I discovered the Sikh humour of Santa Singh which, according to the Wiki page that follows, is not that popular in the Sikh community. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardarji_joke

The point is, I would not tell that sort of joke to a person from that culture since I think it would run the risk of offence but if they chose to share with me, I'd probably join in the humour.

Religion is the other biggie and many of the jokes on our joke thread centre around religion with perhaps a disproportionately large contribution from the Catholic community.

I think two things about potentially offensive jokes about religion.

Firstly, God is big enough and bad enough to do a bit of smiting ('Smite me oh mighty Smiter' - Bruce Almighty!) should he so choose and I'm happy to leave that decision to Him.

Secondly, I'd like a level playing field. So if we're to have jokes involving characters or issues that some hold sacred then there ought to be a level playing field where ALL sacred characters are subjected to the same treatment be it jokes or other media.

As I stated, I'm quite certain I don't have the definitive view and don't seek to impose my view on others but do reserve the right to challenge with debate and dialogue if I think something has crossed a line it perhaps should not have done. I did raise just such a question in our joke thread over jokes re Madeline McCann and the main contributor kindly refrained from further similar postings.

Interesting debate as ever.

 

Would you tell it to a Jewish friend?