[Lorric]

He's just struggling to get it. To connect with the part that is humorous. So with that disconnect, it just leaves it kind of as-is, and it's not exactly pretty with that understanding not there.

I've been trying to think of a suitable example of satire I didn't understand and didn't like until I later discovered what the point of it was and understood. I can't think of a suitable example, but I do know the feeling of being disgusted by a joke until I understood what it was properly. Might not even have found it funny after that, but would have at least got it when before I didn't and not think of it the same way anymore or think there was anything wrong with the people who found it funny where before I might have, not understanding the humour and misapplying their motives for laughing.

[Scotty]

No, I'm pretty sure he gets it.

I'm equally sure he finds it distasteful in the extreme.

[karajorma]

Longer post coming when I'm not on the phone but for those of you justifying the joke, why is it funny to make a joke about people who are radical feminists of this kind?

Is shooting fish in a barrel with a shotgun such entertainment for you that you're willing to get everyone else wet?

[Luis Dias]

The joke is not about "people who are radical feminists". It's about the ideology itself. Ideology, not people. Jokes that get into the paradoxes and issues of ideologies are fun to me. Just like the "In Soviet Russia" jokes are not about Russians.

[karajorma]

And would you be so tactless that you would try to defend your "In Soviet Russia..." joke if one slipped out at the Ukrainian embassy ball?

[Luis Dias]

Are you seriously suggesting they aren't telling hundreds of those everyday now? I think that's probably their top of the list kind of joke right now, unfortunately.

"In Soviet Russia, Russia does not Invade Ukraine territory, it is Ukraine that invades Ukrainian territory which is actually Russian", and so on.

[Scotty]

I think what Kara was getting at is that there are definite groups of people that would take offense to jokes like that.  While I'm not about to say you can't enjoy your joke, the substance of the discussion has seemed so far to be along the lines of "No, it's funny, you just have to <x>" where <x> is something that some of us aren't prepared to agree with.

[Luis Dias]

Yes I get it now, although the ramifications of what is implied up there are a little creepy. I'm sorry, I didn't intend to offend anyone. I'm sad that the line of offense is set so low though, but it's life I guess.

[Scotty]

I don't think I agree that rape jokes are necessarily setting the bar low in terms of offense.

[karajorma]

Okay, time to deal with this "rape jokes" issue. Gladstone summed it up better than I ever could in this great article on cracked.com.

Basically the issue is whether the joke is funny, satirical and being told at the right time and place for it. Luis, you completely failed at the third of those and that's why you've gotten so much **** on this thread. You've then made it worse by trying to blame the fact you went up on stage and got booed by the audience on the audience. If people don't find you funny, either you told the wrong joke or you simply aren't funny. A true master comedian can make a group of old people laugh saying nothing that Bob Hope wouldn't have been willing to put in his act while still being funny to an edgier crowd. The fault is not the audience 99% of the time.

[Luis Dias]

I surrender I surrender!

[Grizzly]

No, I'm pretty sure he gets it.

I'm equally sure he finds it distasteful in the extreme.

Yeah well, this. Also because it originally posted in defiance of a mod's authority, but that hardly bothers me now in relation to all the other posts made in this thread.

Karajorma have you read my PM?

[Phantom Hoover]

Basically the issue is whether the joke is funny, satirical and being told at the right time and place for it. Luis, you completely failed at the third of those and that's why you've gotten so much **** on this thread. You've then made it worse by trying to blame the fact you went up on stage and got booed by the audience on the audience. If people don't find you funny, either you told the wrong joke or you simply aren't funny. A true master comedian can make a group of old people laugh saying nothing that Bob Hope wouldn't have been willing to put in his act while still being funny to an edgier crowd. The fault is not the audience 99% of the time.

This analogy falls apart when you consider that even master comedians get hecklers, and that the nature of online feedback means that the hecklers are all that you will hear from in this kind of environment.

[Flipside]

Well, discussion boards are powered by response, so sometimes it's best, I've found, just to find something better to do than respond to the thread.

I suppose, at the end of the day, jokes such as that aren't breaking any rules, they aren't condoning the act, but I would also suggest that if nothing nibbles the hook, the Fisherman may go find somewhere else to fish, as it were.

I'm not attacking Lorric or Luis themselves, and I'm as guilty as the next person when it comes to rising to things I see as bait on occasion, but since the rules of the forum are 'respond to the comments, not the people', maybe we should consider that silence also carries a message. If we continue the comedian analogy, they would prefer heckling from an audience to no response whatsoever.

I know this is a Discussion board, ergo, it's for discussing things, but it's also multi-cultural, multi-age and supposedly multi-gender, though it is not hard to see why we have so few female members.

As I said, this isn't a comment about Lorric or anyone else, you'll never get rid of sexual innuendo or gender-based humor entirely, or, at the very least, not for several generations yet, but I think the majority of us are old enough and intelligent enough to be able to be a bit...well... adult about adult humour.

[Lorric]

No, I'm pretty sure he gets it.

I'm equally sure he finds it distasteful in the extreme.

Yeah well, this. Also because it originally posted in defiance of a mod's authority

I think I need to clear this up. I want you to know why I posted in the first place.

It was because of this:

Luis, this is not 4chan.  Humor is not in a vacuum, you must consider your audience.  Being a colossal asshole passes for humor there.  It does not here.

And this is how Luis felt:

Scotty:

1. I am not an asshole, I politely request you take that insult back;
2. I am not colossal, I politely request you take that compliment back;
3. I am not a 4chan participant, my jokes were absolutely kosher (that last one is from youtube FYI). If anything, they are at the expense of radical extremists' talking points, which are to be ridiculed as much as anti-vaxxers or other wacky fundamentalists, nothing more;
4. Because I don't think I have done anything wrong, like for instance insulting other members clearly is, I politely request you take that warning back.

Thank you for your time.

I thought the joke was funny. So how do you think I felt? I felt the same. I felt insulted. I felt like he was saying the joke belonged on 4chan, and thus anyone who finds it funny belongs on 4chan. I wanted to show him that there was at least one other person here who found it funny.

[Grizzly]

I am fully capable of reading posts. I am also fully capable of seeing a case where someone fails to recognize why he is being called out and tries very hard to defend his right to be-the-guy-who-he-is (in this case, the right to post rape jokes) without any consideration to what others think outside from saying they are wrong to think that way. Those may not be the actions of an colossal asshole, but they sure as hell make you look like one.

[Lorric]

Are you talking about Luis or me (or both of us)?

[Grizzly]

In this specific case, Luis. I've already expressed how I felt about your posts in the PMs.

[Lorric]

Right. Thanks.

[666maslo666]

And would you be so tactless that you would try to defend your "In Soviet Russia..." joke if one slipped out at the Ukrainian embassy ball?

Every joke has a time and place. So I wouldnt tell rape jokes at a rape convention. But here on HLP? I dont think it is too inappropriate. The joke itself was pretty funny if I can say so, and it was not really endorsing rape because its entire premise and punchline is about the fact that there is no actual rape happening. It could be a lot worse as far as rape jokes go.

There is a big subreddit dedicated to this type of absurd jokes:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesofPrivilege/top/