political correcness vs jokes

[Hannah Nelson!]

I feel like lots of good jokes are going unsaid because of political corectness

[Fragile Waters]

Why did the police officer get kicked out of the light show?

Because he was shooting all the black lights!

[Radene]

You shouldn't make Nazi jokes. I mean, my grandfather died in Auschwitz, for heaven's sake.

He was drunk and fell off a guard tower...

[Gary]

Originally posted by Radene:

You shouldn't make Nazi jokes. I mean, my grandfather died in Auschwitz, for heaven's sake.

He was drunk and fell off a guard tower...

Thats older then any off topic poster

[Sun Praisa']

What's a Mexican's favorite game?

Uno, because they steal all the green cards. What? You thought I was going to say Borderlands?

[DRUNK_CANADIAN]

In this day and age it is definitely a barrier to humor....and honestly very little should be off the table when it comes to humor....although I do concede there is a fine line.

[Sectator Pragmaticam Lex]

Humor is subjective, and it often relies heavily on a specific context.
Because of that, there's no such thing as a joke that won't offend anyone. IMO if a line's to be drawn, it's between humor and offense disguised as humor.
You can find a joke online that offends you (that's easy if you know where to look), but you'll have no-one to blame but yourself. It'd be absurd to demand the entire internet adjusts to your tastes so you can't get offended.
On the other end, someone going out of their way to send you a joke they're aware you'll find offensive is another story.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by thesolo:

I feel like lots of good jokes are going unsaid because of political corectness

don't confuse "being offensive" with "being funny"

being funny is about being clever.

being offensive isn't about being clever.

anyone can throw paint. not everyone can make the result look interesting.

[Coffee Addicted☕]

what if i told you Rocket man is on suicide mission

[Xero_Daxter]

I respect everyone's religion.

Even if they are wrong.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

also

Originally posted by thesolo:

Originally posted by Ignister:

uh, yeah you can

what epic funny gun jokes have you been telling then?

Drawing a ak under an article about someone drawing a bomb in a book and he gets searched and they find 2 illegal guns in his room

congrats, you know how to copypasta. here's a cookie to recognize your ability to copypasta

(yes, that ASCII rifle is really old and no one thinks it's clever or creative in the least)

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by Coffee Addicted:

what if i told you Rocket man is on suicide mission

o/`I think it's gonna be a long long time... o/`

[E3kHatena]

If you're afraid your joke is going to offend more people than entertain them, it probably isn't a good joke to begin with. You can do risque comedy well, comedy is almost entirely about taking risks, but it has to be comedy first and foremost. If unfortunate implications or outright discrimination are spotted first before the comedy, you haven't written actual comedy.

You can write gun-based jokes well. The Simpsons had an episode (S9E5, if I recall) where Homer purchases a firearm to show off to his local NRA chapter and the salesman immediately puts the gun in his hands without so much of a background check, Homer points and clicks the unloaded gun at the clerk several times, and the clerk sells him on a suppressor, a "loudener", and an anti-materiel attachment. This is both a jab at the people who purchase and collect guns, as well as a jab at how people think purchasing a gun works. It succeeds on both ends and discusses a topic that now more than ever is a hot-button issue without blatantly offending anyone on either side of the fence. You can tell jokes focusing on someone's racial or ethnic background without relying on racist caracitures, you can tell jokes about mental illness and current events but it needs to be a good joke first. Doug Walker did a great video on this that is worth watching, whether you like the Nostalgia Critic schtick or not:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNyHlSHbK4s

[Vince ✟]

It comes down to captive vs voluntary audience and your credibility. Outside of those stipulations, I say ♥♥♥♥ em and say what you want.

[76109108007942031]

Well, that's just a risk you have to take when making offensive jokes. If you make a tasteless joke about a school shooting I'm not going to just change my attitude to accomodate your joke out of fear that I'm being "too PC".

I think an important part of comedy is knowing your audience. If you walk into an alcoholics therapy session and start joking about drunkards then you can't really blame your audience for any dirty looks you get, just like you shouldn't make jokes about Christians in a church.

Of course not everyone can choose their audience, and in some cases I would say it truly is the audience's fault if they get offended. After all, it isn't Trey Parker's fault if I decide to watch South Park and get offended by it.

So that's just my 2 cents on comedy. I like to think of it like a market: If your jokes are so offensive/bad that no one likes them then no one will laugh, just like someone who makes a bad product that no one wants won't be able to sell it on the market.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by Sir Illic:

Well, that's just a risk you have to take when making offensive jokes. If you make a tasteless joke about a school shooting I'm not going to just change my attitude to accomodate your joke out of fear that I'm being "too PC".

I think an important part of comedy is knowing your audience. If you walk into an alcoholics therapy session and start joking about drunkards then you can't really blame your audience for any dirty looks you get, just like you shouldn't make jokes about Christians in a church.

This.

Who's your audience when you think you're being funny? Just you? If so, then you're not entertaining anyone and just idly amusing yourself at best. You'd be that one kid who keeps laughing at his own "jokes" that everyone else just rolls their eyes at and then ignores, or at best gives you a sympathetic pat on the back like you're a little kid who can't read the room.