Would you be offended if a comedian made a joke about dwarfism?

[girlfriend44]

Seen a comic in the last few days. Was fairly good although I did notice he made reference to dwarfism? It is acceptable now? Is it even funny?

No, do you speak to other people’s kids exactly as you do your own, or are you a hypocrite?

Such as?

What on earth are you wittering on about??? What has that got to do with a person laughing at dwarfism and at the same time telling others it’s offensive??

Speaking to your kids differently to someone else’s really doesn’t make you a hypocrite.

Because families talk differently to each other than to strangers. Except you don’t seem to think so, under your very tight definition of hypocrisy.

Thank you @Daydreamer12345 I don’t think that poster actually understands what they are saying.

Neither does laughing with your nephew about his disability, and being annoyed when strangers do it.

I never said anything about families ‘talking to each other differently’. I said a person stating they can make jokes about a disability but when others do, it’s offensive, is hypocritical.

You don’t seem to have any understanding of what hypocrisy is. It’s like talking to a child so I’ll leave it now.

We, as a family can have a wry laugh about me and dd's disabilities. As I said earlier, jokes are made in public. The made in public ones are harder to manage as the majority of people will not know that we have this issue. At home, everyone is comfortable with it and knows when to stop. That's the difference

That’s the definition of hypocrisy! One rule for me, another for everyone else.

Well, I would have to disagree with you.

I think that quite clearly makes you a hypocrite

And yet, you have different rules for how you speak to your own children vs how you speak to others. How breathtakingly hypocritical of you.

No. Comedy is near-the-knuckle sometimes, nobody is forced to listen.

I don't find jokes about disability funny tbh, especially when made by an able bodied person. It's always "contextual/dark comedy/hilarious" until you are at the butt of the joke.

Personally I would think it's a bit off-colour. GOOD comedy should punch up, not down. Unless the comedian themselves has dwarfism in which case it's fair game.

Some jokes go over my head.

Yes comedy is subjective, everyone has a different sense of humour, personally for me though I like humour with intelligence the cleverest and wittiest comedians are the ones who don't need to poke 'fun' bully at other peoples differences. Self deprecation can be very amusing (laughing with someone as opposed to laughing at someone). The wittiest people I've known are those who are clever with words and puns, but at no point do they use minority groups to get their laugh.
So Op I wouldn't find someone of average or tall stature taking the piss 'joking' about dwarfism funny. The fact that people on hear think it's a laugh to make fun of children with Down's syndrome is absolutely sickening. Cruel humour is thinly disguised bullying. What's that truism? Oh yeh 'a joke is only funny if everyone is laughing'.

I remember reading about this story at the time. Whilst I am appalled at Frankie Boyle making jokes about someone with Downs Syndrome, what struck me was the hypocrisy of the mother who called him out on the joke.

She admitted that she knew what sort of humour he used when she went to see the show. So presumably she was prepared to laugh at cruel jokes aimed at other targets but objected when the joke got closer to home.

Hmmm!

Depends on the context. People seem to think that no one can ever be offended these days. Obvious hate speech is clearly not acceptable but we need to keep free speech. Soon no one will be able to say anything for fear of upsetting them. Someone told me recently that completing the hair style of someone of a different race could be considered a micro aggression!

I think ’offended’ is a bit of a loaded word. No one likes to think of themselves as easily offended. It has connotations of that well-known MN phrase ‘pearl-clutching’.
If the OP had asked whether you would think a comedian making a joke about dwarfism was a bit of a twat I wonder if more people would agree. I certainly would.
The argument seems to be that it’s too easy to satirise the rich and powerful so comedians need to mock disabled people, rape victims etc. to be edgy and ground-breaking

For all those mentioning Ricky Gervais, it's worth reading this article metro.co.uk/2021/08/16/the-office-producer-ash-atalla-uncomfortable-with-ricky-gervais-jokes-15099299/and watching this clip

The quote "see what you could get away with and then reverse intellectualise it" applied to Ricky Gervais seems pretty pertinent nowadays. Obviously we do have free speech so abled people can make jokes with disability as the punchline but it doesn't mean they are funny.

Oh it can be funny sometimes. I'm a disabled person. If the joke is funny I will laugh, even if it is seemingly at my expense. It's not actually personal is it. Although some people certainly take it that way.