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?

But a joke is not automatically racist because it involves race. How do we determine whether a joke is offensive or not?

What if a groupd of black people are telling each other 1970s racist jokes as a way of mocking the stupidity of old school racists - they are laughing at the idea that the joke could be funny, laughing at their incredible superiority to the sort of mindset that thinks the joke funny. Is that racist?

Jokes work or fail dependent on the comedian, their persona, the situation in which the joke is made (eg the same joke may be 100% fine in a lesbian comedy club but at the Royal Variety performance it would be a bigoted car crash), the audience and their expectations.

Some subjects, like disability, are best to avoided unless you are disabled or you are an INCREDIBLY talented comedian who has REALLY thought the joke through.

I think of a list of subjects unsuitable for comedy as a list of things that I shouldn't make jokes about... but are probably the subjects of some of the best jokes when done incredibly well by incredible comedians in the right context.

Sometimes a joke can be deeply offensive when told by one person to an audience who laugh along, but hilarious if told by another who laugh at the idea that anyone could be so backward thinking that they would make such a joke in 2022.

Frankie Boyle style shock value has a place, though Boyle's particular schtik is getting pretty fucking tired now, and some things he says and doe are terrible (but then again, the odd terrible joke from a comedian is a proce worth paying for good comedy, most adult comedians take risks, and if you take risks you will make mistakes, and whilst I love some truly harmless comedy - tim vine one liners may be a good example - a bit of an edge is preferable as a rule.

If I tell a really dark joke about cancer as a way of coping with a relative's passing am I a bad person?

urm - I’m confused. All the shows you’re claiming wouldn’t get made today, are still available to watch

they are available to watch because their peak days are gone, look at the new shows on mainstream today-do they make the same style of jokes? No because in today's pc culture they can't. Most of the non pc jokes now are reserved for less mainstream stuff like southpark, family guy etc.

I've seen umpteen articles on friends aging badly and being offensive this last decade, I've seen it on mn and across other media.

Best comedian is hands down Billy Connolly!! The way he tells a story!!

Honourable mentions to Rhod Gilbert and Reginald D Hunter that I saw many moons ago at the Fringe and were hilarious!

Friends is funny... Yes the jokes land differently now because people seem to look to be offended these days!! Me on the other hand... I'm fine, I'm totally fine! 😂😂 Love friends!

I started this thread to give people an opportunity to have a laugh - I rather feel as though we’re drifting down the usual “analyse every single word in case it’s ‘woke’ or a further opportunity for ‘cancel culturalists’ - to stop this open discussion in case we laugh about something we shouldn’t be laughing at!!!

Lighten Up everyone - it’s great to be alive!!!

MORE BOB MONKHOUSE:

"The last time I was in Spain I got through six Jeffrey Archer novels. I must remember to take enough toilet paper next time." "Personally, I don't think there's intelligent life on other planets. Why should other planets be any different from this one?" "I can still enjoy sex at 74 - I live at 75, so it's no distance." "People always say: 'You're a comedian, tell us a joke.' They don't say: 'You're an MP, tell us a lie.' “What do gardeners do when they retire?"

source: www.jokes4us.com/peoplejokes/comedianjokes/bobmonkhousejokes.html

My parents made the same complaints in the 80s (because they were working class and enjoyed the likes of Alf Garnett). It was ever thus. I didn't find their idea of comedy funny, they thought Ben Elton and his chums (which I adored) was unfunny filth.

I think old people just find punching down funny, whereas most people today don't 🤷‍♀️

I said in a different post that a member of a marginalised group making a joke about their own group is very different to someone outside that group making the same joke, so I agree with you there.
I make jokes about my disability all the time, because it's my own experience and if you didn't laugh you'd cry. Doesn't mean I want non-disabled comedians to make disabled people the butt of their jokes!

@pfs
so you actual issue is that some people don’t like friends and complain about it online? Just like you’re complaining about types of humour that aren’t to your taste online?

It's ok to laugh when they make jokes then ? Is it still promoting certain attitudes?

I laugh about white people, and Britain's historical atrocities. Oh sorry I forgot white people are fair game for everyone my mistake.

P.s I never said racists joke were fine

I disagree with under 40! I'd say under 30. I was born in 84' and grew up watching Only Fools & Horses, One Foot in the Grave, Porridge & Roseanne etc! I'm more than familiar with a good laugh 😂

MORE BOB MONKHOUSE:

"The last time I was in Spain I got through six Jeffrey Archer novels. I must remember to take enough toilet paper next time." "Personally, I don't think there's intelligent life on other planets. Why should other planets be any different from this one?" "I can still enjoy sex at 74 - I live at 75, so it's no distance." "People always say: 'You're a comedian, tell us a joke.' They don't say: 'You're an MP, tell us a lie.' “What do gardeners do when they retire?"

maybe these are funny when they are being told by a comedian. They dont sound funny when being read

Um yeah, if I make a joke about my own disability, it's okay to laugh. Usually I'm making fun of "certain attitudes".

THIS!!!!!

All the racist jokes have been removed from Only Fools & Horses. I can think of one which has been permanently edited out of one episode which I can’t even quote on here because it's that bad

Serious question. You are out with a group of friends and some of their friends you don't know. You make a joke about your disability, and someone in the group you don't know says that they have a hidden disability and that they found your joke incredibly offensive. Or what if someone else is offended because it reminds them of the jokes mocking their sibling when they were a teenager?

To what extent does your disability give you a free pass, and to what extent do other people have a right to silence you because it offends them?

I've been watching Love Thy Neighbour for the first time recently.

I have reservations about the extent to which it was probably watched by people who were laughing along at the white racists "hilarious" racist jokes. But a lot of the humour comes from laughing at the stupidity of the racists. eg the main (white) character ending up arrested for dancing naked around a tree in the middle of the night because he's been tricked into thinking that he put a voodoo curse on his black neighbour and that's the only way to reverse it. Even back then a lot of the racist comedy was not really racist.

For what it's worth I have been watching it along with a black american man who does a lot of reactions to old british TV (rising damp, in sickness and in health, steptoe and son etc). Obviously you can;t go round being racist and saying it's ok because you found one black person who agrees with you... but there's a real risk that white people get over-sensitive and fail to listen to the opinion of minorities when it comes to what is acceptable or not.

@ChelseaRobertsofMalibu
We were talking about friends and father ted.

Is it being suggested that some posters are irked that racist jokes aren’t as socially acceptable as they used to be?

Also none of these examples would get a comedian "cancelled". It's hardly controversial humour, is it?

Now this joke SHOULD be

why is 10 afraid of 7

because 7 8 9 and he's next.

To what extent does your disability give you a free pass, and to what extent do other people have a right to silence you because it offends them?

there's a lot of disingenuous twaddle on the thread and this is one of the worst. The poster said they made jokes about their own disability. THEIR disability which is personal to them. Other people may get their nose put out of joint, but they are not the butt of that particular joke. And that is the difference.

I must have suppressed the memory but i can't remember a lot of racist jokes on Fools & Horses, i can't imagine i found them funny, since i have never found that kind of thing funny. Some of the wordplay, and the pub-bar scene where Del falls over, however: side splitting.

To recap though. The thread title is "Jokes - are they a thing of the past?". The short answer is: nope. They aren't.

Teased out it seems that what some posters really want is to be able to tell any kind of offensive joke at any time they like, and not expect people to call out their racism/sexism/homophobia. Tough tits. I will continue to adopt the "i don't get it, can you explain it to me?" until the penny drops.

so you actual issue is that some people don’t like friends and complain about it online? Just like you’re complaining about types of humour that aren’t to your taste online

Have you read my posts?I am not complaining about types of humour, I enjoy friends and am not offended by the jokes. I am saying that today others find it offensive. It's not just complained about online, I've seen newspaper articles on it etc.

Also why so hostile? I am merely pointing something out.

Which Comedian told this joke?

”I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included.“

You’ll get a shock but is that because of historical fashion, cancel culture or just people being judgmental?

What's shocking about it? Have I failed to get it?

My two favourites are:

1. How do you kill a circus?

Go for the juggler! and

1. Why is it so difficult to explain puns to a kleptomaniac?

Because they always take things literally.

I agree that people don't tell jokes so much any more, but tbh a large proportion of jokes are, and always were, crap! I guess humour these days is much more 'situational', or referential/in-jokey (particularly meme-based humour). I'm 50 and find it much funnier than old-style jokes (and stand-up, which I almost always hate).