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Can comedy go too far?

analogue

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I've been noticing this a lot lately

You have two sides of an argument. One side says that there are certain things comedians should't be able to joke about (E.G rape and child molestation) because those types of jokes are sick and disgusting. And then there's the other side who says that there should be no limit to what a comedian can joke about, and that the whole point of comedy is to Russel some feathers (I disagree with that, because I thought the whole point of comedy was to make people laugh). And if anyone objects to a comedian joking about a sensitive topic, then that person is an uptight jerk who can't take a joke.

I'd like to hear people's thoughts on this.
 
analogue said:
I've been noticing this a lot lately

You have two sides of an argument. One side says that there are certain things comedians should't be able to joke about (E.G rape and child molestation) because those types of jokes are sick and disgusting. And then there's the other side who says that there should be no limit to what a comedian can joke about, and that the whole point of comedy is to Russel some feathers (I disagree with that, because I thought the whole point of comedy was to make people laugh). And if anyone objects to a comedian joking about a sensitive topic, then that person is an uptight jerk who can't take a joke.

I'd like to hear people's thoughts on this.
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I think the whole point of comedy is something deeper than just being a way to make people laugh.

For example, comedy has to make people also, think, ponder, or even educate them. Many times also comedians can lead people to overcome their difficulties by making them see aspects of their life from a different perspective. This should be one of the main goals of comedy, which by the way, is not easy at all for the comedians to succeed in that. So, many times (& unsurprisingly) we see those comedians resorting to easy insulting/ill-mannered jokes in their acts.

Take, for example, that people can be insulted (& emotionally be traumatized) by certain comedy acts (aimed specifically at them) & this can result, for these people, in life-threatening issues (emotional breakdowns, suicidal behaviors, & so on). So, I believe that comedy has to specify its boundaries by avoiding certain (sensitive) topics.
 
I heard someone saying, "In the past, we would listen to politicians and laugh at comedians. Nowadays, we listen to comedians and laugh at politicians."

I think comedians should be sensible and think carefully. However, things can always go wrong. If this happens, they should listen to those that are affected and take it as a lesson.

I don't know why some comedians can only make jokes about tragedies...
 
I think the whole idea of ''shock humor'' is just to amuse to comedians themselves. They get a kick out of seeing people look uncomfortable over certain topics they joke about.
 
mj_frenzy said:
I think the whole point of comedy is something deeper than just being a way to make people laugh.

For example, comedy has to make people also, think, ponder, or even educate them. Many times also comedians can lead people to overcome their difficulties by making them see aspects of their life from a different perspective. This should be one of the main goals of comedy, which by the way, is not easy at all for the comedians to succeed in that. So, many times (& unsurprisingly) we see those comedians resorting to easy insulting/ill-mannered jokes in their acts.

Take, for example, that people can be insulted (& emotionally be traumatized) by certain comedy acts (aimed specifically at them) & this can result, for these people, in life-threatening issues (emotional breakdowns, suicidal behaviors, & so on). So, I believe that comedy has to specify its boundaries by avoiding certain (sensitive) topics.
Click to expand...

Satire - Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society.
 
In principle, I feel like there should be no taboo subjects for comedy. Actually, I think it is highly important that people should be able to poke fun at anything, maybe even especially taboo subjects. At the same time, of course individual comedians can exercise judgement about whether they deem a joke appropriate or not. Not every comedian is capable of pulling off a joke about a sensitive subject. I am not a fan of jokes that just seem mean-spirited or only seem to be made to stir up controversy.

The problem is however that there is a disturbing trend nowadays of people being offended by seemingly everything (in general, this does not just apply to comedy). What's worse is that they do not stop at being offended, but often even try to silence the source.

Given this, I would say that at this moment it is much more important that people grow a thicker skin, rather than that comedians be careful with what they say.
 
I think it depends on the audience. To some people, fat jokes are worse than Holocaust jokes, so where do we draw the line? Making a subject off limits won't make the issue itself go away.

There are always those people, who get offended by everything, but the world doesn't revolve around their insecurities, so there's no point in censoring everything.
 
MidnightMoonwalk said:
I think it depends on the audience. To some people, fat jokes are worse than Holocaust jokes, so where do we draw the line? Making a subject off limits won't make the issue itself go away.

There are always those people, who get offended by everything, but the world doesn't revolve around their insecurities, so there's no point in censoring everything.
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As you said, there are different audiences, so you have to accommodate to each specifically.

I think the problem is that there are people around whose insecurities this world already revolves and we really don't think about it. Actually, it breaks when someone targets their joke at such people. I saw the backlash around Stuff White People Like or Entropa. However, no one ever said that white people or Europeans are oversensitive and would like to censor everything (which is typical response when an outcast objects to jokes about them).

We actually perform some sort of self-censorship on a daily basis. I don't tell my supervisor she's fat and ugly, I don't tell random people in the streets what they should wear... And if I did it, I would face consequences. That's life.
 
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