Humour - Where Should It End?

[roadsweeper]

I watched one of the episodes of Season 8 of South Park last night entitled 'The Passion of the Jew'.

Broadly, the episode is all about The Passion of the Christ and it does actually carry quite a strong moral message. However, it also ripped the p1ss out of everything in the usual South Park way, including having Cartman dress in a Nazi uniform with a blag 'Hitler wig' on leading a parade of townspeople chanting something in German (I would guess not flattering) about the Jews in a caricature of The Holocaust. Cartman is also heard to say at the end when his 'plan' is foiled, "Awww, but guys you haven't heard my Final Solutionnnn!"

Now, I'm being honest here when I say that I found the episode hilarious, yet couldn't quite reconcile this with the seriousness of The Holocaust - is it really a subject that should ever be joked about, even when the joke is part of some kind of moral lesson?

I had the same quandry when watching the Brass Eye episode on paedophilia - I expected to be OK with it, but did actually think it crossed the line of good taste (particularly by its use of actual children), even though the message behind it (the British media fanning hysteria about the dangers of paedophiles) was serious and needed bringing out into the open.

So, the question is, are their some subjects about which jokes should not be made under any circumstance, including where the overall message is a moral one, or should it go uncensored and the viewer be trusted to differentiate between making a joke about something and belittling it?

I look forward to hearing PHers views on this one...

[JagLover]

South Park is awesome

I particularly liked the episode where they visited the rain forest-one of the most un pc things I have seen-but I suppose there are limits to how acceptable humour can be-but i don't know where to draw the line.

[BrianTheYank]

As long as they arent just slaughtering a bunch of jews for a laugh its all in good taste.

[Plotloss]

Humour knows no bounds and rightly so.

In the 70's Billy Connolly told a gag about the last supper (Disciples eating chinese, Jesus comes in 'whats all this then?' Peter replies it was Judas' treat, he's come into some money) which saw moral outrage and a forced ban from the BBC for some time. In context today thats laughable. Life of Brian suffered much the same fate for its religious mockery. Chubby Brown caused outrage by telling a gag about peadophilia (good turn out tonight, thought you'd all be at home ing your kids) in a town that had just seen a horrid case.

Humour should challenge us, it constantly makes us realise that ultimately what is one mans torment is another mans material. It transcends social boundaries and can be used to make powerful statements that would look preposterous in any other context (Chris Morris is a GENIUS at this). Its a lot more than making people laugh but thats something nice thats thrown into the bargain.

If society cannot laugh at itself it cannot grow. If society doesnt grow then we dont learn anything new and a world without learning is not a place I want to be.

A while back we had a thread about humour not going down well, it was interesting to see what people thought about varying levels of challenging humour. I had offline conversations with some people about it and that too was interesting as some things are genuinely too challenging for a broadminded forum such as PH.

Ask any comic if they have gags that they just wont tell. I bet my bile duct that there will be a few and I also bet that they themselves find them very funny. Collective humour is just the marrying up of those people who have a selected type of humour and to stop that is madness.

Theres too much control in the world as it is, laughing is a marvellous tonic and that should not be stopped. Ever.

[scruffy]

Freedom of speech, old chap.

I think Chris Morris is splendid.

I like Bill Hicks.

I like to think I know when something is funny or satirical, however there are many who can't...and that's sad.

[Plotloss]

scruffy said:

I like to think I know when something is funny or satirical, however there are many who can't...and that's sad.

...and when they enforce that view to stop others enjoyment thats even worse.

Look at Daniels and Edmonds over Cake and Peadoph Isles

Utter morons.

[parrot of doom]

Theres no such thing as a joke thats not derogatory to something or somebody.


Anyone who doesn't realise this clearly has sand in his vagina

[nel]

I might add, people frequently act extremely to topical "disaster" jokes. They don't seem to have realised that disaster humour is also an essential part of event assimilation. Tsunami jokes, paedophile jokes in the town where it happened, these are good examples. Gotta larf or you'll cry.

[LRdriver II]

The other thing is that you can approach subjects easier via cartoons. Think about the Simpsons, they manage to rip the crap out of subjects that usually gets the bible thumping midwest/middle america/easily offended PC brigade into a frenzy if a human did it. And the benefit is that the message still comes across.
Southpark pushes this further and whilst the nazi theme might offend you, apparently when they take the pee out of handicapped children (or whatever) that isnt as bad. Yet somebody out there might feel strongly about that.

I love humour and it should have no limits as its an important part of our humanity. I pride myself on being able to laugh at myself, so that makes me a better person.

[wedg1e]

Plotloss said:

Chubby Brown caused outrage by telling a gag about peadophilia (good turn out tonight, thought you'd all be at home ing your kids) in a town that had just seen a horrid case.

That was Middlesbrough (or rather, Cleveland as a whole) after the infamous Doctor Marietta Higgs and her novel 'test' that was supposed to 'prove' kids had been molested.
What Chubby said was 'Anybody in from Middlesbrough?' and when a few hands went up, 'Shouldn't you be at home playing with your kids?'.
As it happens I'd just got custody of my daughter and has the NSPCC, Social Servies and god-know who else breathing down my neck for ages, as if I wasn't a fit parent (although it was the mother who ran away, not me).
I actually had the NSPCC question whether I thought it was a good idea for any of my male friends to visit me, as in, what might the neighbours think, three men and a four-year-old Now they make bloody comedy films in the same vein and nobody bats an eyelid.

Still, I don't blame Chubby... even if he is a fat baastard

[simpo two]

It's a pity that in these PC-riddled days, if you feel a laugh coming on, you have to check yourself first, compare it to a mental database of taboos and think 'Is it OK to laugh?' And in the end we shall all be so angst-ridden we won't laugh at all, because it might offend somebody we forgot and we'll get into trouble.

Current perversity is that you can champion people who stick their d*cks up each other's bottoms, yet you mustn't mention immigration...

[BrianTheYank]

simpo two said:

It's a pity that in these PC-riddled days, if you feel a laugh coming on, you have to check yourself first, compare it to a mental database of taboos and think 'Is it OK to laugh?' And in the end we shall all be so angst-ridden we won't laugh at all, because it might offend somebody we forgot and we'll get into trouble.

Or you can just say it and go on as you please. Too many people take offense to such stupid things that it shouldnt hold back what you may think is funny.