When Does A Joke Go Too Far?

[Hatsune Candy]

The thing is, whether a joke is offensive or not is all a matter of opinion, and people have just gotten waaay too easily offended over the years. They forget that making light of serious situation is a way for some people to cope. It's like cracking a joke during a eulogy, everyone laughs and they all feel a little bit better. Except nowadays there's bound to be someone that thinks doing that is too insensitive, and that just takes away any positive effects the joke might have had.

Now I will admit that some jokes can just be in poor taste, but that's a completely different matter entirely and I don't feel like delving into it right now.

 

[Minibit]

They forget that making light of serious situation

I don't think it's so much a case of not realizing this as that sometimes people just aren't ready or able to joke about some things.

In my case, things I don't accept humour on are usually things that I think still need to be taken seriously. If sexism was a thing of the past, I'd laugh at feminism jokes, but it's not; it's a present struggle that needs to be acknowledged and conquered, and dismissing it as a joke or stereotype is counter to that.

 

[Hatsune Candy]

I don't think it's so much a case of not realizing this as that sometimes people just aren't ready or able to joke about some things.

In my case, things I don't accept humour on are usually things that I think still need to be taken seriously. If sexism was a thing of the past, I'd laugh at feminism jokes, but it's not; it's a present struggle that needs to be acknowledged and conquered, and dismissing it as a joke or stereotype is counter to that.

I couldn't agree more; jokes like that are very much in poor taste.

What really irks me is when people try to play off those jokes as satire. It's not. Satire is intended to bring attention to the world's issues, not make light of them.
Granted, the line between satire and derogatory joke can be a bit of a blur sometimes, just ask most comedians.

 

[Jorick]

I couldn't agree more; jokes like that are very much in poor taste.

What really irks me is when people try to play off those jokes as satire. It's not. Satire is intended to bring attention to the world's issues, not make light of them.
Granted, the line between satire and derogatory joke can be a bit of a blur sometimes, just ask most comedians.

Satire isn't about bringing up issues that the general public agrees is a problem that needs to be dealt with. Satire is simply mocking something the satirist views as foolish or corrupt or wrong about individuals/groups/society. If, for example, someone views feminism as a group that is doing more harm than good and mocks them to bring that up, that's still satire even if you or the majority of the population disagrees with that viewpoint. People have different views about what is wrong with society and how they ought to be fixed, so it is utterly possible to have two satirists of diametrically opposed points of view making scathingly ironic jokes about the same topic from different sides, and they would both be legitimately engaging in satire rather than one being satire and the other being something else.

Humor is funny like that. The intent of the speaker/writer is largely what ought to determine the classification of what they're saying, but other people like to apply their own values and morals to other people and claim their jokes as intentional cruelty or similar. It's silly and shouldn't be done, but people will be people and there's no stopping that.

 

[Luminas]

Saying that a certain character or a person sucks because they don't know how to brainstorm. *works for roleplaying" blah

 

[daird]

Oh, this is good timing. Last week, I essentially got tarred, feathered and run off another site (won't name names, but I guarantee a good chunk of you have heard of it) for commenting that jokes and other insults aimed at a group for a tragedy that, while horrific, happened four years ago, need to stop and everybody should move on. Maybe I should have read the room better. When it happens, of course there are going to be jokes and outrage, but it can't go on forever. So not dredging up old sins is also a factor.