lol
Yeah... I totally can't see how this thread could possibly end badly...
Personally, I love tasteless humor precisely because of how horrifying it is. Shock is one of the best tools for comedy, but you have to pick the right time, place, company and context. I tend not to tell jokes dealing with race, domestic violence, rape, infant death, pedophilia, holocaust or other "touchy" subjects to anyone, who doesn't know me very well. My rule of thumb is: if I have to start with "I'm not a [blank], but..." - I'd better keep it to myself.
BTW, Polish people are not a "race" - that makes "Polack" jokes not "racist" per se, so are they "OK"? What about blonde jokes? Jokes about fat people? Jokes about mothers-in-law? Not all blondes are stupid, not all fat people are "greedy", not all mothers-in-law are bitches and yet when someone mentions one of those in a joke - we usually automatically understand, what's implied. So - should we tell those? If you look deep enough - most jokes can be found offensive to someone, depending on context and intention.
A joke does not have to express hatred, or make light of serious issues, in the same way a horror movie is not a celebration of brutality, torture, suffering, or death - even if it can be enjoyed as such by psychotic individuals. The vast majority of people who like horrors, enjoy them precisely because they know nobody is really getting hurt. It's the same with offensive jokes, when it's made reasonably clear, that they don't express an actual opinion of the person, who tells them, or the audience. Which - admittedly - can be tricky.
Yeah... I totally can't see how this thread could possibly end badly...
Personally, I love tasteless humor precisely because of how horrifying it is. Shock is one of the best tools for comedy, but you have to pick the right time, place, company and context. I tend not to tell jokes dealing with race, domestic violence, rape, infant death, pedophilia, holocaust or other "touchy" subjects to anyone, who doesn't know me very well. My rule of thumb is: if I have to start with "I'm not a [blank], but..." - I'd better keep it to myself.
BTW, Polish people are not a "race" - that makes "Polack" jokes not "racist" per se, so are they "OK"? What about blonde jokes? Jokes about fat people? Jokes about mothers-in-law? Not all blondes are stupid, not all fat people are "greedy", not all mothers-in-law are bitches and yet when someone mentions one of those in a joke - we usually automatically understand, what's implied. So - should we tell those? If you look deep enough - most jokes can be found offensive to someone, depending on context and intention.
A joke does not have to express hatred, or make light of serious issues, in the same way a horror movie is not a celebration of brutality, torture, suffering, or death - even if it can be enjoyed as such by psychotic individuals. The vast majority of people who like horrors, enjoy them precisely because they know nobody is really getting hurt. It's the same with offensive jokes, when it's made reasonably clear, that they don't express an actual opinion of the person, who tells them, or the audience. Which - admittedly - can be tricky.
"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." - George Bernard Shaw
