To be wetting myself laughing at Kim Jong Il's funeral coverage?

[BaublesandCuntingCarolSingers]

It's hilarious.

That massive framed picture on top of the funeral car. The OTT speeches. Kim-Jong Un's hairdo.

It's like something off Monty Python.

Foreigners are weird aren't they. Would never happen in this country. No, we have thousands of people wailing in the street when a Princess dies and Elton John warbling at her funeral.

It is very, very different to Monty Python. It is real life for the poor sods you're watching and laughing at. These are people who have spent their entire lives hungry, who have no chance of betterment or education or escape. They were being filmed by the secret police during the funeral procession - to make sure that they are suitable upset. If not they could be arrested and shot or worse. The N Korean regime is a nightmare for the people who live there and while the bastards in charge are comical to look at, they are anything but comical in real life.

I find it really distasteful that you find something like this amusing, especially at this time of year.

not watched it but the whole thing saddens me, terrible that people live in such fear

I can't laugh about it for all the reasons given by Calisto. These people are completely oppressed. The fact that Western comedians find it funny doesn't surprise me in the least.... the decline of the thinking process is well underway, it seems.

Agree with Callisto. I read "Nothing to Envy" last year. Fascinating read and will give you an insight into why they are weeping and wailing.

It's actually the complete opposite of funny. If they had any natural resources that the West wanted we would probably have invaded them by now instead of leaving millions to suffer. Read "Nothing to Envy".

I completely agree with Callisto. Oppression isn't funny.

Very sad for the reasons already said.

I have said this on another thread but I will repeat it here - natural resources has nothing to do with why we haven't invaded North Korea.
North Korea has one of the biggest armed forces in the world, they have nuclear weapons (and people in charge that are mad enough to press the button), they have a multitude of other long range weapons and they have china on thier side. I we started a war with north Korea we would be starting world war 3.

I agree with Callisto and others - I found it utterly disturbing and heartbreaking that people are treated in this way

It just shows you how utterly privileged we are in comparison

But no - it most certainly isn't funny. I could weep about it to be honest, but no never laugh.

I don't agree Western comedians find it funny, it's called satire.
I do agree that it is a terrifying regime that has got brainwashing down to a fine art.
That this can still happen in the twenty first century is unbelievable.

Oh yes the threat of labour camps for those not mourning deeply enough is fucking hilarious. Lmfao.

YABU.

It's very far from funny.

Millions of people in N Korea live in fear. They are watched all the time for non-conformity. People starve as most foreign aid is prevented from entering the country.

It must be like living in Orwell's 1984.

Wetting yourself laughing seems like a very strang response to have. And very distasteful.

What Callisto said. Not watched any of it yet as not been in all day but I can't imagine anything to do with that persons funeral will be anything other than disturbing to be fair.

You call it satire, LadyBeagle, I call it irreverent and misplaced attempts to be 'funny' at things that are obviously not; dressing it up as satire is one way of doing that. I think some of the 'comedians' we have in this country are everything to be ashamed of.

Brief but insightful

It makes me want to weep, not laugh. Those poor fuckers - what sort of an existence must they have?

Wetting yourself laughing?

At a funeral?

Have you seen any Monty Python?

Actually this is about as far from funny as a big fat flaming spike up the arse. What kind of twisted mentality would even find it mildly amusing? The North Koreans must surely be the most repressed people on earth and they know that if they don't cry (when they'd really much rather be celebrating joyously the death of this hideous dictator) they're in for a lifetime of trouble.

What Callisto said.

They fear for their lives if their not seen to be giving the correct and expected response. The poor nation are brain washed.

It shouldn't be allowed to happen, but as others have said above, if we or another nation step in then god only knows where that would lead.

China are distancing themselves though aren't they, so maybe this is an opportunity for change?

I feel privileged to live in a country where it's possible and acceptable to laugh openly at tyrants. There is a reason why political satire is outlawed in dictatorships - and that's because it's the best way of cutting dictators down to size.

OP - I understand where you are coming from. There is a strange black humour in situations of mass delusion and insane propaganda. The huge amount of satire directed at the Nazi regime over the years proves this.

Satire has worked for many years Lying, Charlie Chaplin mocking Hitler in the thirties for example.
Mocking this vile regime can also be effective.
But no, I didn't laugh at the funeral scenes.