to feel that nothing is off limits comedy wise?

[Heathcliffscathy]

when I think of things that have really made me laugh some of them would be VERY offensive to some groups (mostly religious, and I believe in god)...I'm thinking about Sarah Silverman, Dennis Leary's no cure for cancer, Chris Rock etc etc.

Comedy is about offence to a certain extent isn't it as the funniest things are the ones that are closest to the bone, laughter relieves anxiety and therefore the graver and most serious something is (like the nazi's for eg) the funnier it can be (vis the producers for eg).

Dave Allen had it in for Catholics and my catholic mother used to weep with laughter at him. Derek and Clive take the piss about Cancer to great effect.

Now there are some 'comedians' that I think are shit: Bernard Manning springs to mind...but I don't think that banning them or censoring or protesting is the way forward, just don't view!

There are threads on here regularly about topics that mner's feel are off limits to comedy, most especially special needs. But I'm pretty sure that many special needs adults wouldn't appreciate being singled out as something that cannot be a source of humour...the ability to laugh at oneself including the tragedies and limitations of our lives is really important isn't it?

I maybe totally wrong, and maybe it's only ok if it is a special needs person doing it?

ha ha ha swc - there's only a few posters on MN who's opinions matter to me - and you're definitely not one of them.

no, of course not - and I never have. but this is about what's acceptable in comedy and I think making jokes about deaf people, blind people, people with limps, people with speech impediments (stutters etc) is ok.
I don't think making jokes about sick or disabled children is in anyway funny, but as I said - where do you draw the line?

Sorry - I misread your post. I thought you'd asked me if was ok to laugh at disabled children. No I don't. Disabled adults. Yes. in certain situations.

daftpunk I think that because it's hard to draw a line, it doesn't mean none should be drawn. In fact, I think it makes it all the more important to do so.

Comedy can be offensive and often is. But mainly it pokes fun at those who are in a situation due to their own choices. I think once nasty comments aimed to belittle people who have no control over their situation come into it, there is where the line needs to be drawn.

oh Riv its ok DP won't lol at your dd just you

If you are going to laugh at disabled adults, why not go the whole hog and laugh at disabled children daftpunk. Your logic escapes me

It's a difficult balance to get right I admit. Offensive comedy for the sake of being offensive ( like the dead female babies under the sofa ) is just not funny - to anybody - but that was an extreme example of a shite 'comedian' . Comedy, when used in the right way, can unite people it really can. & the more we try to ban this that and the other, the further apart we become - we become alienated.

Humour is a fantastic leveller.

So jokes about abortion would be funny?

And what is the cut off point for laughing at people with disabilities?

Just so I can put it in my diary.

You know why I think comics have chosen to make jokes about disabled people and there has been an upsurge in misoginistic jokes?

Because they think if they start making racist jokes even in an 'ironic' way some 6 ft black bloke might come and give them a well diserved slap.

Do you think I should put it about that OH is a 6ft black guy but is also disabled and still well able to aim an exsquaddie, exboxer slap at some skinny public school twat who thinks people who dont like his mong jokes are provicial prudes?

But DP, you say making jokes about "people with limps" is OK but not disabled children.

My child, with a limp, will grow into an adult with a limp. And while he is a child he will be well aware of adults making jokes about the adult he is to become. He hears it now. His friends hear that stuff now. And what really matters is that the little fuckwits who are not his friends and are inclined to 'tease' people about the hilarity of having a limp hear it now.

rive, yep she will be 16 soon, not sure if she will be deemed an adult then, but I am not worried cos anyone who takes the piss out of her will have ds too deal with.

And comedy as a leveller? yes, a shared joke is a great binding experience. But if it against someone else, then it is divisive. In fact groups of people often bond by making horrible jokes about the 'enemy', and it isn't intended to bring people together, it's intendd to de-humanise the butt of the joke, establish the difference betwen the and the bonding group, and it's a mechanism well known to bullies, racists, misogynists, etc etc.

"Comedy, when used in the right way, can unite people it really can"

This, Daftpunk, is the only thing we agree on. Unfortunately, your idea of the "right way" is considerably different from mine.

You think it is OK to laugh AT disabled people. I think it is OK to laugh with them at people like you.

Look, DP is far too stupid to even understand basic sitcom humour, she isn't going to understand the subtleties of any of these intelligent arguments. You are wasting your time. She is, ironically, disabled by stupidity and bigotry.

DP...I'm going to attempt to save you from yourself. I think, well hope, you mean laughing with disabled adults and at the response to disability rather than taking the piss out of, for example, an adult with CP. I don't think you would laugh if someone said "I saw a woman in a pub and thought she's fair game pissed up already, then I realised she had CP and thought fucking hell I escaped that one." however you might laugh if someone with CP said that they were refused service at a bar on the basis that they were pissed and then the landlord got awkward when the person told them she had CP, for example.

When I worked in a bar a large group of deaf people would come in and I prided myself on learning sign language for what they might order. One night I was having little joy with a guy ordering half a cider, taking five minutes....when I poured his drink he gave the money and said 'thanks love, you tried really hard' with perfect diction, he wasn't deaf at all he was with the group as a boyfriend of one of the women!! Now that was really funny.

(I hope that illustration wasn't offensive, it's really hard to make this point clear.)

As a woolly-liberal-bigot-communist I'm really grateful to all the other w-l-b-c's who have posted so intelligently on this thread.

My DD works in an environment where hateful words such as 'spakka' and 'retard' and phrases like 'the window-lickers bus' are commonplace.
Their attitudes are re-enforced by what they see on TV and by one-another, to be part of the gang.

DD's little brother goes to school every day on a 'window-lickers bus'. Because she's mouthy articulate, she argues her point that this is offensive and has changed some people's minds. But perhaps she should just suck it up instead, in the name of free speech

'window-lickers bus'

what a hideous term.

I know Posie. It's supposed to be hilarious.

If I heard heard anyone saying that I don't think I'd be able to control myself, they'd be getting on the head through the window bus soon after.

Honestly, onagar, you're so flippin' moral.

Yes, you're right - people with power are just as human as the dispossessed, so on that basis alone they deserve the same level of respect...it's just rather satisfying to generalise, pigeonhole and then target them, isn't it? I mean 'pathetically satisfying', like a bully who picks on someone smaller than them in order to feel better.

Obviously some people do lord their power over others, and they are worthy of being spattered with comedic guano, but I'm sure that lots don't. So perhaps as a group they are an unfair target.

What is a 'window-licker'?