Jokes - are they a thing of the past?

[WhenDanMetHelen]

Growing up in the 1960’s … humour was all around but nowadays it’s difficult because it’s based on different parameters that can’t touch on stereotypes etc …

Modern day examples sound funny but apart from the World’s Funniest Joke (as told by Monty Python) it was so funny that everyone who read it, allegedly died laughing, a lot of comedy we’re told is funny - just isn’t -

I read a joke online last week;
If you go into a bathroom as an American and Come out of the bathroom as an American … What are you while you’re in the bathroom?

ANSWER:
European!

What kind of jokes (these days) make you laugh?

Not sure if anyone has said this as really can’t be bothered to read the thread but humour should surely be natural and spontaneous….

Being able to remember a joke and recite it doesn’t make someone funny. Traditional jokes are never really funny anyway….people just laugh to be polite.

Bob Monkhouse:

“that new M25 motorway has got serious problems … one very enterprising young man is offering motorists the opportunity to have their portraits done in oils, while they wait in the queue!”

“when the inventor messed up designing the drawing board … what did he go back too?”

“I got my first break in Silent Radio”

“When I told all my teachers and school friends I was going to be a Comedian, they all laughed 😂 … Well they’re not laughing NOW!!!”

Modern day comedians are just not funny - they’re a tragic failure reflecting the demise of civilisation - at least Bob was funny and took you away from all the problems people faced in their lives - and none of it offensive!

Still plenty of humour and jokes round where I live and work.

I like offensive jokes. Nobody and nothing should be off limits, gay,straight,male ,woman,race,disabilities, poor,rich as long there isnt a group being singled out and it's well crafted and actually funny there should never be a problem

People used to laugh at all those things

just because you're offended doesnt mean you're right

Ricky gervais

Modern day comedians are just not funny - they’re a tragic failure reflecting the demise of civilisation

This made me laugh.

Rhod Gilbert is fab

Modern day comedians are just not funny

Not a single one? Maybe you just don’t have a sense of humour.

Please can I ask how many of those marginalised groups you're a part of yourself?
Anyway, I like Joe Lycett, if we're talking about contemporary comedians - went to his recent tour which was absolutely hilarious and didn't have any punching down. Something else I enjoy about a lot of current comedians is that they're a member of marginalised groups and making jokes about themselves. There's a big difference between a non-disabled person making a joke about disability, and a disabled person making a joke about their own disability. In the past we didn't have anyone except privileged white non-disabled men doing comedy, so we missed out big time on jokes that are actually funny and not nasty.

*what? what is it you can't say? I am very confused. I say a lot of stuff, apparently 99% of what i say is utter tripe. But it doesn't offend anyone (unless they're not telling me). so what is it you can't say?

Generally - so you don't get reported and the message deleted. You can DM me the good jokes, i promise not to report you.

I am fascinated by the idea that people can't say liTerAllY AnYthInG because the snowflakes have made all speech untenable. As though we all flap our arms round like seals to communicate*

Ok on friends there were lots of gay jokes-think chandler's dad, chandler and the jokes about ross's ex wife. They'd not go down well today. Also there were loads of fat jokes about younger monica and then people would see characters like Joey or Sam from Cheers as being jock type studs/womanizers as being misogynistic and promoting it to women.

In Cheers too Diane had a mental breakdown and spent time in a facility and there were loads of jokes about her mental illness. Likewise Ross had a mental breakdown somewhat in Friends and it was all done in humour, today people would be offended by this. Or many of Sam's women in Cheers were attractive but dumb and it was seen again as promoting misgyony. Or in Cheers Rebecca was a gold digger trying to marry wealth and again people would get offended by this.

In friends too think of the girl chandler dated who had the wooden leg...Then in other ones like married with children there were loads of fat jokes and the needy/bimbo wife was again promoting a stereotype.

I think joking about the sexual abuse of animals is disgraceful and not funny.

I mean if we try hard enough we can find an offence angle for everything can’t we?

Also there were jokes on Cheers like Frasier holding Sam at gunpoint, this again wouldn't be seen as funny today especially considering all the gun crime in USA.

There were fat jokes too on Cheers against Norm and jokes made about Carla's height. Cheers and Friends today would be seen as promoting toxix masculinity too. Eugh the list is endless and the Golden Girls too had loads of gay jokes and jokes aimed at the women's bad appearance because of age. Having said that though, they were equally unflattering to men in their humour.

A lot of the Golden Girls age related jokes could have been made complimentary and it would have been just as funny, maybe more so. That episode where they unknowingly went to a nudist park, gathered the courage to go naked to dinner and then of course it turned out people did dress for dinner. Maitre d' made some comment along the lines of "we all dress for dinner, and may I suggest that this goes for you especially". He could have given them an appreciative look and said, "But for you ladies, I'd be willing to make an exception." I'd find that funnier.

Or maybe that's making jokes about sexual harassment, I don't know.

Please can I ask how many of those marginalised groups you're a part of yourself?

zero.

I dont believe:

Only black comedians can make black jokes
Only disabled people can make disability jokes
Only gay comedians can make gay jokes
And so on

No one should be bubble wrapped incase they get hurt feelings . They are just jokes and not meant to be taken seriously

"'ere, I wanna word with you"

Modern day comedians are just not funny

That's strange because I regularly go and see "modern day comedians" and laugh along with the hundreds of other people in the audience who are also finding them funny. Many of us in those audiences are under 40 so, according to this thread, have "no sense of humour" yet there we all are, laughing our woke, snowflake milenial arses off. It's almost as if comedy, like any other art form, is subjective and you're not the arbiter of what is or isn't funny.

Yes also the Golden girls ep where they got arrested for prostitution was hilarious but it was all aimed at the women being old and physically unattractive. Today there would be backlash. Think Friends too where Phoebe's hand 'slipped' when massaging her client, that offend people today.

Some of the posters on MN are hilarious, intentionally so, much of the time.

They had to cut a scene from Mama Mia, the characters went out for fast food but the place was mobbed. Slowly, sadly they begin to sing 'Have you seen the queue for Nandos'.

I said 'some of the posters'. Now, where did I leave my coat?

Another one is desperate housewives where Orson was raped by Alma and it was seen as funny.

And yet Friends is still very frequently repeated on TV. So clearly it's not true at all that you can't say anything anymore as a show that was full of sexist, homophobic and ableist references is still showing on TV today and high street shops still sell Friends merchandise.

Good to know you're spouting an opinion on something you've never experienced then.
The thing is, it's not "just jokes". Ableist jokes promote ableist attitudes, racist jokes promote racist attitudes, sexist jokes promote sexist attitudes, and so on. They show people that it's "okay" to demean people because they're different. This leads to marginalised groups being shut out of society, very literally.

Come back when you've been sworn at in public for using a wheelchair.
Or when you've been beaten up for daring to wear makeup as a gay man.
Or when you've listened as family members have been told you have no free will or agency, because you can't speak.

All things that have happened, recently, to me and my friends and family.

Then tell me that it's okay to make fun of people for being different.

And yet Friends is still very frequently repeated on TV. So clearly it's not true at all that you can't say anything anymore as a show that was full of sexist, homophobic and ableist references is still showing on TV today and high street shops still sell Friends merchandise

ofcourse they are and so are the shows I mentioned but they get a free pass as they are classics now much like many older films/shows, if they were to be done in new mainstream shows these days they'd be pulled up on it. Friends constantly gets criticized online by new generations for its lack of pc culture.

Even the new James Bond films James has to be more respectful to the women but it doesn't stopped the old films being played on tv. The old films do get criticised though for it over the media.

Ok on friends there were lots of gay jokes-think chandler's dad, chandler and the jokes about ross's ex wife. They'd not go down well today. Also there were loads of fat jokes about younger monica and then people would see characters like Joey or Sam from Cheers as being jock type studs/womanizers as being misogynistic and promoting it to women.

ok @pfs all of these things have been repeatedly mentioned here and elsewhere, since about the time they were aired, as being a) not hugely funny and b) problematic because of subject matter.
Monica is hilarious because she used to be fat and therefore hideous and now she's thin she's gorgeous -but she is still a judgy controling person. Hilarious. My ribs hurt

etc etc

And yet: there are still jokes, tropes and memes making fun of fat people. Now more than ever, i'd argue. they are still not funny. And now we recognise the damage constant bullying of this kind causes.

So in effect all the people saying: "wah wah we can't tell jokes any more wah wah" are saying that they're sad they can't bully, say, fat people into an eating disorder. slow handclap

these are the kind of thing Bob Monkhouse used to tell. Or even Des O'Connor. (speaking of whom: he was the butt of plenty of Morcombe and Wise jokes. The payoff being, they came off as being a little bit mean, he laughed and usually had the upper hand in the end. Bantz that he went along with. Nothing wrong with any of that)

inews.co.uk/light-relief/jokes/tim-vine-best-jokes-and-one-liners-88044?ico=in-line_link

Please can I ask how many of those marginalised groups you're a part of yourself?
zero.

@Agrudge lucky you. I have been in marginalised groups and the but of relentless horrible "jokes" and "banter". Rape jokes galore. Oh how we laughed. Not. Often not in a position (lowly private, sergeants and above making the "jokes") to complain or do anything other than suffer along until it stopped.

And so on.

So lucky you. And lucky us that we are now able to say "STFU" to rape jokes, racist jokes, homophobic jokes etc etc. (apparently not jokes against middle aged women but i have hope)

I'd accuse OP of dog-whistle rhetoric, but this is just... a regular whistle.

'member the past?
'member when you could be racist?
Weren't it marvellous?

urm - I’m confused. All the shows you’re claiming wouldn’t get made today, are still available to watch. Even Roy chubby brown is still touring - if that’s your cup of tea. So what is it that you apparently can’t say anymore?