Vallejo holds panel discussion on what is and isn't funny...

Then walk into another thread, or start one It's not a battle royale, no shame in thinking "I can't really be arsed with this one."

Castle will like that. His arguments generally resemble emmenthal and whiff of brie.

I don't know that you're naked; I just naturally assume so.
It might just be you. Ask tandelou for an opinion.

Wow, you're really a bag of laughs. Do you do kid's parties?

I have more of the New York attitude to humor; everything is fair game.

This is a thread about comedy, not a thread containing comedy. The difference may be difficult to distinguish but I remain confident you'll sort it out.

He is just a bit of code. Why would he care about bodies?

Not every joke about race is racist. Not every joke about women is sexist. I already said it depends on the context.

But when somebody makes a sexist remark and when called out offers "Relax, it was a joke" as his only excuse then that's pretty pathetic.

I'm way less touchy than you guys think.

No one is stopping anyone going to open mic. I've seen some very funny people of all genders and races, and the funny ones are all appreciated, the less funny ones, not so much. In professional comedy, yes, not much equality there, but that is rapidly changing. People forget that it was only a few years back comedy wasn't "big", you went to seedy venues and lived out of places you didn't really want to live out of. Not many women like that from a biological point, having your period when living out a car isn't a career selling point. You had to be a certain kind of person to keep banging your head against that.

Comedy has gotten a lot more civilised now, so women are moving more into it, and all power to them.

Then you're missing the point of comedy. It doesn't exist for your amusement, it's a blunderbuss of happy shot, and you hope you hit enough people to make it worth your while.

Nobody own comedy, nobody is entitled to say what it should or shouldn't be. It's perceptual. What happens if you start applying that to other perceptual elements?

You have every right to say "hey, I don't like that, I don't find it funny", what you don't have the right to say is "that shouldn't be comedy."

I don't have a problem with comedy. Kurt Tucholsky once wrote an essay about the fact that there is nothing satire isn't allowed to do.

I have a problem with sexists and racists who make sexist and racist remarks and then excuse them by saying it's a joke.

I do, in fact, have the right to point out when "comedy" is being used as an excuse to marginalize people and perpetuate bigoted stereotypes.

People can tell whatever jokes they want. That doesn't make them immune to criticism.

AI's are always fascinated by what they don't have.

Just AI's?
How do you explain men and boobs?

Memories of nursing?

Is that why some of you even grow them?

The answer to that is obvious: Boobs.

Maybe the humorous trait or situation involves a.......well you know.......I hate to say it but......a minority or historically oppressed group?
But I see where you're coming from. If I'm paying money for a white entertainer, they should just read the screenplay to
"The Color Purple" while wearing sackcloth and ashes and stopping every few minutes for an intense crying jag session.
That would make a great date-night with my wife - I'll suggest it to her.

Now when it comes to humor:

White people could just stick to making fun of themselves. There's endless material.

@oldfella1962 Don't forget the self-flagellation.

Again: Using comedy to reinforce stereotypes about white people =

Any other group =

Nope. That's not racist.

Yes. But the tricky part is who get's to apply those labels. Should I get offended and refuse to see the houmor in Chris Rock's routines about stupid things white people do? Or not laugh when Sarah Silverman points out how idiotic men can be? I'm Irish/Italian. Should I get offended at the 'all micks are drunks' or 'all eeytyes are mobbed up' jokes?

What... isn't this thread all about repeating yourself now?
Did I get that wrong?

Next I'm going to start bolding relevant parts.
Or typing slower. L...i...k...e t...h...i...s

Best Chris Rock joke ever -
"Every town has two malls. The one the white people go to, and the one the white people USED TO go to!"
Tell me he's wrong! Matter-of-fact we might have to build a third mall in my town before long!

Nothing wrong with that joke. You might want to re-read my posts again and again until you understand them.

It isn't.

Racism is a system of oppression inflicted by the dominant race upon others. Racism in the US was and is built by white people.

White people reinforcing stereotypes about themselves gets a shrug from me. Do all jokes consist of stereotypes? There's no reason they have to.

If black people want to joke about their own stereotypes, you won't get any comment from me on that. That's their business. Black people want to make fun of white stereotypes? That's fine, too. White people want to make fun of (read: perpetuate) their stereotypes about black folks? Not okay with me. You can call it a double standard, if you don't want to spend any time thinking about it. I call it being able to identify privilege and context.

I do find it hilarious that Chris Rock tells better jokes about white people than white people do. Get it together, whitey.

Well, aside from the fact that the rest of your post was a meth-head's off-day, are you kidding?



Three of these guys are the funniest thing on six feet. The fake redneck, not so much.

I would imagine there are some on this very board who try to milk their own.

You're expecting too much from this crowd.





Edit: It's such a short sentence yet I had to edit this three times to fix the typos. Damn you, Val. You suck.

Wrong. That system of oppression is a result of the phenomenon; it's not the phenomenon itself. Racism is viewing individuals predominantly, sometimes exclusively, as expressions of a race.

Racism isn't "built", but I'll chalk that up to your confusion of the effect with the cause.

I call it a double standard because the idea of "privilege" when applied to individual members of a racial group is an expression of racism. Were shanty Irish living in ghettoes outside New York "privileged"? The ones who built the railroads in indentured servitude right along side Chinese immigrants?

It's really just this simple: "Privilege" ascribed to individual human beings on the basis of their ethnicity has no greater value -- logical or moral -- than any other negative stereotype attributed to individual human beings on the basis of their ethnicity. You, sir, are a simple and basic racist, and I am not impressed, to the slightest degree, by the novelty of your rationalization about it.

Good day.