Quote:
Originally Posted by butthead aka 216
the person doin the joking?????
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But if you can't extend that assurance to your audience then you're a s
hit comedian and, as Mr. Charlie said, your joke has failed. If you get gratification from making people question your morality or decency as a human then you're a sh
it person.
A lot of good comedians express themselves in a way that toes the line - it's truly an art form. They make you question and reflect on your own beliefs and behaviors. The sh
it comedians are the ones who tell jokes for the shock value or thrive on making people think they're an *******.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ki
Then i'm an *******. Sue me.
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I can't understand why you're ok with this. I used to hold a similar viewpoint to yours, but a moment came where I stepped back and gained some perspective and realized that what I say has the potential to hurt someone else, and I made every effort to better myself and reduce the amount of harm I impose on others as much as possible. I couldn't settle for just being an *******.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Charlie
We're all judges. We hear something, we see something, and we judge it, we judge it based on our sensibilities and our fears and our experiences, and unless we're Buddhist or Taoist or long practisers of Zen, then not judging things we experience is extremely difficult.
I think I could have worded my post a little better but let me be clear - I don't for a second believe I get to say what people should and shouldn't joke about. The point I was trying to make is that if a joke upsets someone, if it leaves them feeling worse, then the joke, in my opinion, has failed. But as you allude to, it's not always easy to gauge what things some people might find offensive. It's a fine line to walk.
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Ok, I hear you. My issue lies in the fact that things like rape, pedophilia, genocide, etc. are all real, ongoing things that happen to real people. Perhaps I'm overly empathetic but I can't make light of things that cause tangible harm to other humans just because I'm lucky enough to not have some of those experiences. I think that joking about these things desensitizes populations to very real, very horrid occurrences, and that's part of the reason that the events are so painfully ongoing.