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AIBU?

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The Titanic

114 replies

Whyarethetoyseverywhere · 09/09/2023 11:54

I have a soft spot about the titanic. I think everyone has that one disaster that gets them emotional and that is mine. I’ve done a lot of research about it and I am fed up of seeing people make jokes or referencing it in such a casual way.

The latest, a woman on TikTok who does photography with her children and poses them as Jack and Rose from the movie in water and added fake frost. Regardless of the characters being fictional, it’s still a real story and people were freezing to death and drowning and this woman thought it would make a cute photo to replicate that?!

Theres a song that says ‘going down like the titanic’ but could you imagine if someone said ‘going down like the world trade centre’ in a pop song? There’d be uproar.

AIBU to be sick of people forgetting that it wasn’t just a film and that 1500 people actually died in a horrific disaster and making jokes about it is disgusting?

OP posts:
Peachy2005 · 09/09/2023 14:44

I have never watched and will never watch the movie as I thought at the time it was crass to turn it into romantic fodder for the cinema. I have always found the Titanic tragedy to be deeply upsetting.

Presil · 09/09/2023 14:44

KatherineJaneway · 09/09/2023 14:34

Me too.

I was walking by the wondow ...

Listen very carefully; I shall say this only once.

It is I, Leclerc

Oh, my dicky ticker!

Show quote history

Yes, fantastic! 🤣

And this:

'Allo 'Allo!: "The gateau from the chateau."

'Allo 'Allo!: Season 2 Episode 7 ~ The Gâteau from the ChâteauSubscribe to see more 'Allo 'Allo!, plus more great classics!

https://youtu.be/kj5gJqy6Q-8?si=iSD4LTLOQg1fTbbM

MagicClawHasNoChildren · 09/09/2023 14:45

Presil · 09/09/2023 13:25

People were a lot less reverential about WWII in the decades soon after it ended than they are now. They also talked less about it in general.

And hardly anyone talked about the Titanic! Until Cameron made his film.

Does everyone really have a favourite disaster?

Weirdly, I do have a 'favourite' disaster. It was the Titanic, but now it's the 2015 sinking of the SS El Faro - it sailed straight into a hurricane off the Bahamas and sank with all hands.

The thing that really gets me about it is how utterly avoidable it was. I think there are elements of that about the Titanic, too. It could so easily not have happened. I don't know why that makes me so much more interested, but there we are.

SlipSlidinAway · 09/09/2023 14:49

You do know Rose and Jack weren't real people op?



MolkosTeenageAngst · 09/09/2023 15:02

People trivialise real historical events all of the time, think of Prince Harry dressing as a nazi for example. Also not that unusual for the twin towers to be referenced in music, especially rap. Eminem and Immortal Technique for example both reference it in more than one song each.

OnAMidnightTrainToGeorgia · 09/09/2023 15:10

You could take it back as far as biblical times....all part of history

Yet we churn out various versions of the 'nativity' every year...

BadLad · 09/09/2023 15:38

ShutTheDoorBabe · 09/09/2023 12:53

The people who died on it are dead and therefore won't care. The people who didn't die on the boat and survived are mostly also dead so don't care. Most of the families of the people affected are dead so don't care. It was ages ago. It's fine.

The people who survived the disaster are all dead now. The last survivor died in 2009. She was two months old when the Titanic sank.

GoonieGang · 09/09/2023 15:49

Fieldofbrokenpromises · 09/09/2023 11:58

Some people have questionable tastes - some people even wrote a “comedy” tv show about the resistance and Gestapo in WW2 France. It was unaccountably very popular.
YANBU to be upset, but this is unlikely to change.

‘Allo ‘Allo! By any chance? It was tongue in cheek and acceptable at the time.

Loopytiles · 09/09/2023 15:52

YABU and it’s just as bad to be mawkish as to be flippant.

passthesugar · 09/09/2023 16:02

Whyarethetoyseverywhere · 09/09/2023 11:54

I have a soft spot about the titanic. I think everyone has that one disaster that gets them emotional and that is mine. I’ve done a lot of research about it and I am fed up of seeing people make jokes or referencing it in such a casual way.

The latest, a woman on TikTok who does photography with her children and poses them as Jack and Rose from the movie in water and added fake frost. Regardless of the characters being fictional, it’s still a real story and people were freezing to death and drowning and this woman thought it would make a cute photo to replicate that?!

Theres a song that says ‘going down like the titanic’ but could you imagine if someone said ‘going down like the world trade centre’ in a pop song? There’d be uproar.

AIBU to be sick of people forgetting that it wasn’t just a film and that 1500 people actually died in a horrific disaster and making jokes about it is disgusting?

"Time to get paid, blow up like the World Trade..." - Notorious B.I.G

KatherineJaneway · 09/09/2023 16:06

GoonieGang · 09/09/2023 15:49

‘Allo ‘Allo! By any chance? It was tongue in cheek and acceptable at the time.

Show quote history

Almost the same jokes each week and they still make me laugh to this day.

Fieldofbrokenpromises · 09/09/2023 16:50

GoonieGang · 09/09/2023 15:49

‘Allo ‘Allo! By any chance? It was tongue in cheek and acceptable at the time.

Show quote history

It was never acceptable to me

TheAOEAztec · 09/09/2023 16:53

That's why there are so many different types od comesy. So everyone can find something to suit their sense of humour

DappledThings · 09/09/2023 17:08

KatherineJaneway · 09/09/2023 16:06

Almost the same jokes each week and they still make me laugh to this day.

Show quote history

Yep. Still quote it now. I think the PP who objects to it is firmly in the minority

KatherineJaneway · 09/09/2023 17:16

DappledThings · 09/09/2023 17:08

Yep. Still quote it now. I think the PP who objects to it is firmly in the minority

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I also still refer to dinnerladies. 'My cone is out and my dander is up!'

LylaLee · 09/09/2023 17:22

Did you know that under Belgian colonial in the 1800s - 1900s rule an estimated 10 million indigenous people were killed?

And since 1996, in the war that has been waged over the natural and mineral resources up for grabs in the Democratic Republic of Congo over 6 million people have been killed.

What about the forced organ harvesting in China?

Are you starting a thread about that too? Or are you like most people on the planet who pick and choose what to be upset/outraged about.

cornflower21 · 09/09/2023 17:26

MapleSyrupWaffles · 09/09/2023 12:36

the Titanic museum has a bit at the end with a fake bow of the ship where people can go on to the platform and take a photo like in the film!

That actually surprised me, actually, give that the rest of the museum was mainly about the ship building and the effect of the industry on the development of the city and so on, and very little about the actual disaster.

Yes this- I find it quite insensitive to be honest.

Fieldofbrokenpromises · 09/09/2023 18:12

DappledThings · 09/09/2023 17:08

Yep. Still quote it now. I think the PP who objects to it is firmly in the minority

Show quote history

As I said, it was very popular at the time, I was in a minority in thinking it was puerile cheap laughs and in poor taste at the time, but comedy is extremely personal, isn’t it?

Testina · 09/09/2023 18:17

“I have a soft spot about the titanic.”

You don’t like other people using it for their own ends, but you’re allowed to have “soft spot” for your own mawkish entertainment?
It’s long captivated people, a compelling story - but come on, your basic interest is that it entertains you. Your internet may be respectful but it’s not grounded in respect - it’s grounded in a fascination of a story not your own, for your own enjoyment.

LylaLee · 09/09/2023 18:42

Scoobydoobywho · 09/09/2023 12:53

I remember going to watch the film at the cinema when it came out. The amount of teenage girls crying because of Jack a fictional character dieing. No thought about the real life people who did lose their lives was ridiculous.

Imagine being sad about a movie! They're not even real!

There was this one gladiator one which was dead sad, but I made sure not to cry, because it wasn't real.

Afterwards, I had a good old cry for the thousands of real gladiators who died, and for all people who were slaves, and for the people destroyed by the Roman empire. I wept for the Medes and the Persians and the Ottomans and the Aztecs and Incas and Druids and Vikings. All dead now. Cried about the Lusitania, and just about all shipwrecks in general. Then I did a good cry about the first and second world wars, the war of the Roses and the battle of Hastings. I had a good cry about the fire of London and the black death. About all the indigenous peoples killed by colonialism and climate change. I cried over the British concentration camps in South Africa in the 1800s. If only they hadn't given Hitler the Idea!

I flicked through a history book and just did a generic cry.

Then I had a good cry over all the cows and chickens that have been killed, all the dogs and cats and hamsters. All the fish flushed down the toilet.

I'm crying too much to carry on typing.

ShutTheDoorBabe · 09/09/2023 19:00

ell87 · 09/09/2023 14:34

Actually where I'm from there are thousands of us with family that were on that boat. I had 4 relatives 1 male survived 3 males dead, my husband also had a relative that died on the boat. Obviously none of our living relatives got to meet them but nonetheless it's still sad knowing what they went through and we have photos of them in family albums.

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So that proves my point: you don't personally know and have never personally met anyone who was on that boat.

It's sad knowing that many people, mainly women, were hung or drowned as witches and yet we still watch films about witches and dress up as them at Halloween. Do you?

There are hundreds of war films and children still play with toy soldiers - is that insensitive?

Did your dc do the Nativity play at Christmas in early primary school, despite it being a story about a lad who was born, indirectly causing the deaths of presumably thousands of infants because of Herod's jealousy, and who was later crucified? What do you think of that?

Do you celebrate bonfire night and the torture and murder of Guy Fawkes?

There are countless films, celebrations, stories, festivals, poems and songs based on death and accidents and suffering and catastrophes. They are part of our culture.

borninthe80esss · 09/09/2023 19:30

Mercurial123 · 09/09/2023 12:46

Do people really have one disaster that makes them emotional? It's a bit ridiculous getting upset about something you have no connection to.

No it isn't...I don't know anyone who died in the twin towers but whenever I watch a documentary about it I cry, because I have empathy for all the people it did personally affect.

Danikm151 · 09/09/2023 19:39

That video of the photographer posing the little kids was creepy as fuck! They’re brother and sister and she put them in a pose depicting a death scene!

BeeVer · 09/09/2023 20:00

Fallingthroughclouds · 09/09/2023 13:09

There are already jokes about the world trades centre. I watched SNL once and the disgusting things that were said/joked about Pete Davidson's father, a firefighter who died in the blaze, when Pete was a kid, were truly horrific and very upsetting. I have a dark sense of humour, but I was shocked.

there have been loads of jokes about the WTC. I remember one being made on Have I Got News for You the same week that some teenager got jailed for making jokes about April Jones (I remember thinking that the line between ‘light entertainment’ and ‘criminal’ seemed pretty abstract).

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