Sick humour, RL and sensitivity....discusss!

[Blu]

I am genuinely interested in this because it poses personal dilemmas for me.

(This is not a thread to intended to carry on opinions about individual MN-ers).

I remember watching the Zebrugge disaster on tv and crying. But the next day, someone told me two very sick jokes - at which I did laugh. Without feeling any less horrified at what had happened. Had a relative of the drowned been close to me my sympathy and sensitivity would have been, I hope, total.

On the other hand I have been hugely upset on MN by some of the relentless jokes about HMMc's leg, because I felt that people could well make jokes about my own DS's leg, and also that her leg was becoming a focus for all sorts of other things about the way HMMc is seen.

Is it about whether we think these thjoughts at all? Whether we write them down, and consider them 'legit' and ok to share widely if we write them down?

Do we encompass all our emotions in the face of verything we eencounter, and humour is in there somewhere?

And where does the sensitivity we would show if we were in the front room with someone bereaved stop, and free speech become an issue? I have seen things discussed as free speech issues on Mn when personally i would have seen them as 'someone's fromnt room sensitivity' issues....

No, you're right stopping other people from joking about it wouldn't stop it from being haunting, but I think if someone is going to joke about something like this, they should perhaps assess their audience, i.e. reserve this sort of joke for people whom they know well (and will take it in good part)...because an awful lot of people are offended by such jokes..

I have seen the Catherine Tate sketch btw - I adore Catherine Tate. However, she does come with an on and off switch!

Same here, Enid.

I hope people can find laughter out of me when I die. I honestly do.

1. I'm not going to be around to care 2) I'd prefer just about anyone laughing to crying.

I come from a place where humour is seen as bad in a lot of ways.

It's tragic.

I have rather a quirky sense of humour I think. I find other people don't laugh at the things I find hilarious. Re: sick/dark humour - I tend to find that if it's predictable/not very good, I find myself getting offended by the subject matter, eg some of the Michael Jackson/Princess Diana ones weren't very witty and I did think "Ugh, that's just nasty". However, if a joke is really shockingly sick/vile and takes me off guard, I tend to laugh like a drain and repeat it to everyone who will listen