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Social Psychologists: 36 Days After a Tragedy, Jokes About It Become Funny

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Re: Social Psychologists: 36 Days After a Tragedy, Jokes About It Become Funny

#21

Post by rimantas »

ewoodrich wrote: post #20
hawkharris wrote: post #16

Humor can be painful because there's a grain of truth in every joke. For example, think about some of the jokes that are considered crass and offensive in American culture: bits about black people being poor; women being treated as housewives. While the stereotypes are false, they relate to deep-rooted societal problems. Income inequality is still associated with racial inequality. Women are still underpaid and under…

One could also argue that your examples of crass humor normalize these stereotypes, and therefore perpetuate them. If I were to constantly make jokes about how black people were all burglars and rapists, and women should spend all day in the kitchen, at some point I might blur the line between irony and implicitly endorsing the generalization. I don't claim that I haven't made the types of jokes you describe, but at…

I also do not consider anyone finding some jokes offencive as cowardly person, just a stupid one.

Re: Social Psychologists: 36 Days After a Tragedy, Jokes About It Become Funny

#22

Post by dror »

BoppreH wrote: post #6

For comparison, the Onion 9/11 cover: http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/thecutline/onion-911.jpg

Looks like it was actually published on 9/26 http://www.theonion.com/articles/american-life-turns-into-ba... http://www.theonion.com/issue/3734/

Because they stopped publishing right after 9/11 http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/remembering-onion-9-11-i...

Re: Social Psychologists: 36 Days After a Tragedy, Jokes About It Become Funny

#23

Post by ewoodrich »

rimantas wrote: post #21
ewoodrich wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One could also argue that your examples of crass humor normalize these stereotypes, and therefore perpetuate them. If I were to constantly make jokes about how black people were all burglars and rapists, and women should spend all day in the kitchen, at some point I might blur the line between irony and implicitly endorsing the generalization. I don't claim that I haven't made the types of jokes you describe, but at…

I also do not consider anyone finding some jokes offencive as cowardly person, just a stupid one.

So just to be clear, literally no joke can be offensive? I guess I'm stupid then, because I have fairly high tolerance of irony, but I would never such a sweeping claim.

Re: Social Psychologists: 36 Days After a Tragedy, Jokes About It Become Funny

#24

Post by joelrunyon »

> McGraw believes the spread of social media has imposed new limits on what comedians can get away with.

> “Comedy is a space that has its own set of rules,” said McGraw. “Then it gets posted on the Internet and broadcast to people sitting at their desks— people who weren’t intended to hear it and aren’t in the mindset to appreciate it.”

I've noticed this lately with people taking comedian set jokes out of context via a recording or second-hand party blowing them out of proportion. It's a real shame. If a joke isn't funny - don't laugh at it - that's the worst response a comic will ever get. But don't blow them up on a twitter, try to make them apologize for making a joke that wasn't particularly funny.

Re: Social Psychologists: 36 Days After a Tragedy, Jokes About It Become Funny

#25

Post by protomyth »

Funniest joke about a tragedy was told to me and others by a friend's wife about 20 minutes after the friend died. It was very near the worst day of a group of people's lives and we really needed to laugh because it was going to suck for a long while.

Re: Social Psychologists: 36 Days After a Tragedy, Jokes About It Become Funny

#27

Post by matchu »

dror wrote: post #22
BoppreH wrote: post #6

For comparison, the Onion 9/11 cover: http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/thecutline/onion-911.jpg

Looks like it was actually published on 9/26 http://www.theonion.com/articles/american-life-turns-into-ba... http://www.theonion.com/issue/3734/ Because they stopped publishing right after 9/11 http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/remembering-onion-9-11-i...

Makes sense. I'd be pretty surprised if they managed to write all that on 9/11, for a number of reasons.

Re: Social Psychologists: 36 Days After a Tragedy, Jokes About It Become Funny

#29

Post by PhasmaFelis »

rimantas wrote: post #21
ewoodrich wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One could also argue that your examples of crass humor normalize these stereotypes, and therefore perpetuate them. If I were to constantly make jokes about how black people were all burglars and rapists, and women should spend all day in the kitchen, at some point I might blur the line between irony and implicitly endorsing the generalization. I don't claim that I haven't made the types of jokes you describe, but at…

I also do not consider anyone finding some jokes offencive as cowardly person, just a stupid one.

That sounds like a challenge to me. Let's start with your Mom...
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