Guns don't kill people...
...people kill people
But the gun helps.
-Eddie Izzard, Dress to kill ('99)
which brings me nicely to the topic of... comedy and specifically, controversial comedy.
i like comedy. i like to laugh (hey, who doesn't)
but, what's fair game in comedy? some people don't like racist jokes, sexist jokes, jokes about sexual orientation, religion, political leaning and whatever other hot-button issues one may think of.
personally, i say, joke about anything you want, and if you can fit in all of the above into one joke, then, more power to you. sometimes life has too many boundaries, and looking out for all of them all the time gets old real fast. it also creates 'joke monopolies', best illustrated in Seinfeld when Jerry's dentist claims to have converted to Judaism:
Jerry (to a priest): My dentist converted so that he can make jokes about Jewish people as well as dentists!
Priest: And this offends you, as a Jewish person yourself?
Jerry: No, it offends me as a comedian!
[i'm typing from memory, so it probably isn't 100% spot on. but the gist is there]
So now we have black jokes monopolized by blacks, gay jokes monopolized by gays, dentist jokes monopolized by dentists and transvestite jokes monopolized by... eddie izzard (well not really, he doesn't go into it much).
don't get me wrong, i realize they write what they know, but surely they know something other than the recycled cliches that they keep throwing at us.
anyway, that was all slightly off topic
back to the main idea; i think that controversial jokes should be kept off-limits with regards to political correctness (or conversely PC should be kept out of the humour realm), for no good reason other than that i like hearing them. i like them not because of their controversial content, i like them cos it's just fucking funny sometimes. and controversy doesn't make a joke funny, but if a comedian wants to express a joke controversially, then let him!
i don't like discrimination in other parts of life (and i do speak from experience, though admittedly limited and not all-knowing), but when it comes to humour, let it hang loose, man.
But the gun helps.
-Eddie Izzard, Dress to kill ('99)
which brings me nicely to the topic of... comedy and specifically, controversial comedy.
i like comedy. i like to laugh (hey, who doesn't)
but, what's fair game in comedy? some people don't like racist jokes, sexist jokes, jokes about sexual orientation, religion, political leaning and whatever other hot-button issues one may think of.
personally, i say, joke about anything you want, and if you can fit in all of the above into one joke, then, more power to you. sometimes life has too many boundaries, and looking out for all of them all the time gets old real fast. it also creates 'joke monopolies', best illustrated in Seinfeld when Jerry's dentist claims to have converted to Judaism:
Jerry (to a priest): My dentist converted so that he can make jokes about Jewish people as well as dentists!
Priest: And this offends you, as a Jewish person yourself?
Jerry: No, it offends me as a comedian!
[i'm typing from memory, so it probably isn't 100% spot on. but the gist is there]
So now we have black jokes monopolized by blacks, gay jokes monopolized by gays, dentist jokes monopolized by dentists and transvestite jokes monopolized by... eddie izzard (well not really, he doesn't go into it much).
don't get me wrong, i realize they write what they know, but surely they know something other than the recycled cliches that they keep throwing at us.
anyway, that was all slightly off topic
back to the main idea; i think that controversial jokes should be kept off-limits with regards to political correctness (or conversely PC should be kept out of the humour realm), for no good reason other than that i like hearing them. i like them not because of their controversial content, i like them cos it's just fucking funny sometimes. and controversy doesn't make a joke funny, but if a comedian wants to express a joke controversially, then let him!
i don't like discrimination in other parts of life (and i do speak from experience, though admittedly limited and not all-knowing), but when it comes to humour, let it hang loose, man.
posted by heikal at 9:17 PM
2 Comments:
i think that controversial jokes should be kept off-limits with regards to political correctness (or conversely PC should be kept out of the humour realm), for no good reason other than that i like hearing them. i like them not because of their controversial content, i like them cos it's just fucking funny sometimes. and controversy doesn't make a joke funny, but if a comedian wants to express a joke controversially, then let him!
i dun really understand this part: if you like jokes with PC, how come u say PC should be kept off limits to jokes? or did i get it all wrong once again? or was it just a case of a simple typo somewhere?
thanks
pc= political correctness. i like jokes, including politically INcorrect ones. so i argue, PC and jokes should be kept apart.
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