Originally Posted by Mr. Charlie

Like anything in life, joking requires a degree of mindfulness. I'm okay with all jokes myself: rape, paedophilia, genocide, whatever, it's all words, and providing the joke teller is simply joking then they can joke about raping my mother for all I care - it's all good, but to joke about cancer in front of someone who has cancer, or joke about rape in front of a rape victim, well... it's likely to cause offense and upset them. And upsetting people is the opposite of what jokes should do.