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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Oh, they were jokes.
The lesson I want people to take away from Louis C.K., and have wanted since the harassment thing, is that a joke is not a wacky nonsense phrase tossed out into the universe just to be funny. A joke is a sincere expression told in an absurd way.
People who like to make racist jokes? They make them because they're racist.
People who like to make sexist jokes? They make them because they're sexist.
People who like to make homophobic jokes? They make them because they're homophobic.
A joke is funny because, on some level, you agree with the idea being expressed. When the punchline is "Bitches should get raped" and you think that's hilarious, you think that because you believe that bitches should get raped. A joke whose central message is incomprehensible or offensive to you would never make you laugh.
The reason why the "Just Joking" defense needs to end is not because the person in question wasn't joking. It's because of this: the fact that you said something like "We should kill all the Jews" in a joking format does not change the fact that you think we should kill all the Jews and felt that was an idea that you needed to convey to the world.
So people who joke about being horrible f*cking people? They make those jokes because they're horrible f*cking people. You laugh at them because you think they're funny as hypothetical anecdotes nobody would really do. But that's not what they are. That's never been what they are.
It's time to stop giving passes to horrible ideas and horrible statements just because they were expressed absurdly.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 31st 2018 at 12:02:03 PM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Retired generals Petraeus
and McCrystal
have preemptively refused to work under Trump.
Petraeus is a former CIA director and commander of US forces in the Middle East, where he was an early and vocal supporter of the need to start nation building once Saddam was overthrown. He resigned from the CIA after being caught having an affair and it was discovered that he had passed along classified information to the woman he was sleeping with.
Mc Crystal was the commander of US forces in Afghanistan until he publicly bashed the wartime leadership of President Obama.
A joke is at its most basic agreeable thing taken to an abused. The comedy comes from the absurdness. You can make jokes about potholes if you add enough absurdity (I’ve done it). Not all comedy is a reflection of genuine beliefs directly, what it is is a demonstration of what one thinks it’s good to joke about.
I have a full set of autism based jokes, but they’re not aimed at autistic people, they’re aimed at placing autistics over neuro-typical people in an absurd way.
CK is more than anything being lazy, he can’t be bothered to make clever comedy so he’s punching down at easy targets for an audience he knows are pre-dispositioned to like him. The ‘comedy’ in his routine comes from the ‘absurdity’ that kids have valid opinions.
We don’t find it funny because we don’t find kids objecting to being shot absurd.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranI kind of disagree with Tobias, but I kind of don't. You can tell jokes about racism and sexism without being racist or sexist, as long as the punchline is "racism and sexism is bad".
Those Wacky Nazis is a trope that is frequently used to portray Nazis as a punchline, that Nazis are stupid and evil and they should be made fun of.
If I, a Jewish man, say in a joking tone "nah, the Holocaust was totally faked, amirite", the punchline is not "the Holocaust was faked, all the people who believe in it are idiots", the punchline is "the Holocaust was not faked, Holocaust deniers are fucking morans for thinking so". That said, if it's not clear that my intent was for the latter punchline, someone could easily interpret the joke to mean the former punchline.
This has actually happened to me, as a child, I jokingly said that the Holocaust never happened, fully aware that it did and the very idea that it didn't is absurd and farcical, and my teacher scolded me. He was aware that I was joking, but he also informed me that there are a lot of real people that genuinely believe that, which I was horrified to learn.
As another example, as a dumb little child I would hang out with other kids and make "greedy Jew" jokes, from the perspective of "I know Jewish people aren't actually greedy, but I'm making fun of the idea that they are because anti-Semites are stupid". I would take any money offered, not because I'm Jewish, but because I'm poor and need money (and I thought I was clever for tricking them out of their money through humor). My mistake was assuming that everyone else came from the same place of understanding. I grew up around Jewish people, and I knew we were no different than anyone else. As a kid, though, I didn't understand that I was potentially one of the only Jewish people those other kids knew and so I was only reinforcing stereotypes, even when I thought I was making fun of them.
I'm not trying to excuse C.K's behavior and words, I haven't even seen the thing yet and I totally believe he's a fucking asshole, I'm just trying to explain my view on jokes and how they relate to social issues.
Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Dec 31st 2018 at 4:18:41 AM
Reading tropes such as You Know What You Did
Happy new year from Europe! I have good hopes for the next year, with this fantastic and properly representative new group of congresspeople elect, which can stop Congress from being a "check" aka rubber stamp for the president.
Life is unfair...
Reading tropes such as You Know What You Did
Farron Cousins on the Ring of Fire, a Youtube channel that covers Trump's antics, today reported that the latest news on the presidential meltdown is instead of listening to his experts during briefings he is instead listening to Fox & Friends and going by their advice as he is being counseled by generals and financial experts and wall architects.
Say Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Tom Crocker said Trump could afford the F35 or the wall, not both. Trump would ignore that, watch Fox say how great he is, and say how great he is and they are going to have both. Now the video by nature is critical of Trump so do be warned.
Now if you need more details I would be happy to provide a script.
Currently reading up My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours

I disagree they're not on similar scales, both show lack of empathy, none of them taking responsibility for the comments they made, at first. I wonder what good thing people are assuming Hart meant, by saying he would prevent his son from "turning" gay.
Life is unfair...