Quote: Nogget @ July 3 2011, 6:39 AM BST

Just to clarify my question, I just want to try to put a value on laughter, in the same way that society has increasingly put a value on censorship in comedy, and then equate those two values. I maintain that a lot of humour is potentially offensive, because humour tends to involve things like mockery and tragedy. What's more, for someone to find things offensive ultimately only requires them to take offence, because people get offended by all sorts of innocuous stuff. Just look at how outraged people get when they see what they think of as the incorrect use of language. It demonstrates our capacity to become offended when all that it takes to offend is to end a sentence with a preposition.

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What would you like to see in comedy that you think we're not allowed to see now?

Quote: chipolata @ July 3 2011, 12:17 PM BST

What would you like to see in comedy that you think we're not allowed to see now?

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Jokes about Hugh Bonneville spring to mind...

Quote: Tim Azure @ July 3 2011, 12:29 PM BST

Jokes about Hugh Bonneville spring to mind...

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Which has nothing to do with people taking offence, more to do with a super injunction.

Quote: chipolata @ July 3 2011, 12:34 PM BST

Which has nothing to do with people taking offence, more to do with a super injunction.

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He offends me...

But still what offence is everyone refering to?

I mean is it a racist sitcom from the 70s? Or an offensively unrealistic portrayal of cancer in a weepy? Or Little Britain's class snobbery? Or the implicit antisemitism in so much reporting on Israel? Or the shock offence gag about Maddy? Or puckish gags about rape and consent? Or droning feminist moans about paternalism which are really quite sexist?

Which?

Or the anti Irish joke about the Irishman who laid patios and put up fences.

Paddy O'fence.

Quote: sootyj @ July 3 2011, 2:11 PM BST

But still what offence is everyone refering to?

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*To what offence is everyone referring?

Quote: sootyj @ July 3 2011, 2:11 PM BST

I mean is it a racist sitcom from the 70s?

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No 1970s sitcoms were actually racist. Certainly none were maliciously racist. How they are perceived today, and how their jokes may have been taken out of context and used by moronic children in the playground, is another matter.

Quote: sootyj @ July 3 2011, 2:11 PM BST

Or the anti Irish joke about the Irishman who laid patios and put up fences.

Paddy O'fence.

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I took offence at a fellow Irishman (person??) who did me a new fence the other week and left all the old panels behind for me to get rid of...suppose I could sell them for scrap, or make a bonfire in the back garden and throw him on as the Wicker Man.

OOooo, I vote fire. Lovely big fire.

Yes, sloppy service has to be snuffed out

My fave Irish joke.

*cough*

Ahem...

This guy is doing a ventriloquist act in this theatre. He is sat on a chair and has the little man sat on his knee. The show starts and for about 20 minutes he does non-stop Irish jokes about how all Irish people are supposedly thick and gormless.

Then, in the front row a man jumps to his feet and starts shouting. "HEY HEY HEY! I've had enough of this shit, I'm Irish and I'm not stupid. You're out of f**king order. Quit it now!"

The ventriloquist tries to calm him down: "Hey, come on, sit down, it's only a joke. You're not supposed to take it seriously. Please sit down."

The Irishman turns to him and says "What's it got to do with you? Keep your nose out of it. I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to that cheeky little twat sat on your knee".

I think we should have no boundaries in comedy as I think it is an art and you can't put rules to an art. people being offended is a risk we are going to have to take.

Those people who get offended are normally over reactionary fools most of the time missing inertially the joke in purpose.

Brass Eye is a perfect example of this. The Paedogedden Special made the tabloids shit their pants with outrage missing the point that it was a satire on the ridiculous way the media demonises paedophiles and stirs up more panic and frenzy.

This is one of those age old debates that has no real answer or solution.

It depends on *who* is offended. Jokes about Gary Glitter probably offend Gary Glitter. Offence is one of those things that's too subjective and abstract to even care about.

For people who are offended there's ALWAYS someone who feels the need to disagree. People'll defend Manning, Davidson all day long.

In comedy, the only thing that offends me is something that's plain and simply unfunny and trite (see above). If it's unfunny (to me) then it's not really comedy (to me).

So in that light offensive and funny can't really co-exist, never have I laughed hard at something, rushed out to buy and re-listen, all the while thinking "this really offends me, it's really funny and I am humoured, yet simultaneously outraged".

Maybe others disagree.

Quote: chipolata @ July 3 2011, 12:17 PM BST

What would you like to see in comedy that you think we're not allowed to see now?

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I am not suggesting there's anything in particular we should be allowed to see. All I'm asking is that we recognise the value of humour, so that we can gauge what is lost when comedians are restricted by people saying 'it shouldn't be allowed'.

Quote: Monster Scum Bag @ July 3 2011, 9:32 PM BST

Brass Eye is a perfect example of this. The Paedogedden Special made the tabloids shit their pants with outrage missing the point that it was a satire on the ridiculous way the media demonises paedophiles and stirs up more panic and frenzy.

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And one of the funniest things about the Brass Eye fuss?

The Daily Star lambasting Chris Morris while simultaneously leching over 15-year old Charlotte Church's tits...