Board 8 > Ken Jennings old TWEET has come back to HAUNT him!! Is it Offensive????

(+) Yeah! (+)

Leonhart4 posted...

Comedy is largely making fun of people so I'm not sure how that's a crazy take.

oh, i'm not denying offensive humor isn't a huge part of comedy but to say that comedy is practically ALWAYS offensive seems like a bit of an exaggeration. i don't see what's particularly offensive about a joke like "you can tune a piano but you can't tune a fish." at the very least, you must admit that that joke is not "offensive" in the way that wheelchair joke is.

---

Mr Lasastryke posted...

i don't see what's particularly offensive about a joke like "you can tune a piano but you can't tune a fish."

One of my friends is allergic to seafood. This would upset him.

---

I mean aside from childish jokes like puns and knock knock jokes. And I used the word "potentially" because he kept asking "can you not see how that might offend someone" and the answer will usually be yes. The comedy genre ages poorly far more often than any other genre for a reason.

---

Most comedy is trying to make light of situations that are at least potentially unfortunate in some way

So anyone who has been personally affected by the situation is potentially going to be offended, no matter how funny it is, or even how offensive it is.

Like for this joke being in a wheelchair is not always a lifetime thing. There are also varying degrees of necessity for wheelchair use. Plenty of people who use or have used wheelchairs might not feel this kind of joke hits as hard for them as say a person with a spinal injury who can't ever use their legs again.

Broaden this to a different joke that's even harder to construe as offensive or insensitive. Say a guy jokes about their crazy cat destroying the house. I don't know. Now this one person reads it who is super kindred spirit to animals and had a cat with a legit diagnosed mental issue is like "WOW YOU CAN'T PAINT ALL DISABLED CATS WITH THAT BRUSH" even though that wasn't the intent.

At some point you need to just lighten up.

---

TomNook posted...

One of my friends is allergic to seafood. This would upset him.

I dont have hands so I actually cant tune a piano, this joke makes me feel bad.
---

The heart of comedy lies in things that are unexpected or surprising. While that doesn't mean offensive, it is about going against the grain which can be offensive in certain situations.

even that "tune a fish" joke could be offensive if you said it during a funeral or something

---

HashtagSEP posted...

Like, let's just not make/defend race jokes, because the chance of making a good, inoffensive one is extremely slim.

I mean I definitely agree with this as a good common practice. But just because I personally don't make them doesn't mean I'm going to shame someone else's attempt.

Race jokes are funny, and in a lot of ways, healing. My cuban family loves sharing jokes comedians do about cubans. My irish family loves irish jokes. In a way, it makes races that normally feel maligned feel like someone is paying attention (if the joke is done right)

---

Okay but you went pretty damn hard on defense of "Watermelon Lives Matter"

---

I retracted that since, so I'm basically innocent and you're a bully for making me address my own past foibles

---

I think its very offensive and ableist. Crazy how this board just dismisses the humanity of the disabled.

---

MawiIe posted...

I retracted that since, so I'm basically innocent and you're a bully for making me address my own past foibles

Yeah but then you unretracted it!

Maybe I'm behind and you reretracted it since.

---

Basically my arguments with board 8 are like supreme court arguments, I need to find someone who is palletable to defend.

under my ideal world, watermelon edgelord is protected, but I personally don't find him worth defending

---

the watermelon lives matter shit was definitely offensive. doesn't matter if it was fchamp or someone else tweeting the picture.

---

iiaattgg posted...

I think its very offensive and ableist. Crazy how this board just dismisses the humanity of the disabled.

iT wAS jUsT a JokE, dOnT gEt sO OfFeNDeD!

---

I like how waluigi lacks the competency to make any legitimate argument and just goes straight to mocking people instead. Keep telling yourself you're a good guy!

---

Waluigi1 posted...

iT wAS jUsT a JokE, dOnT gEt sO OfFeNDeD!

don't you see how mocking other users could be seen as offensive

---

Jokes should be judged on intent and context, not on literal wording. NO exceptions.

Also, getting offended is a personal failing. Either someone's intent was to offend and you're giving them what they want, or they didn't intend to offend and you've now created conflict where there was none.

MawiIe posted...

I like how waluigi lacks the competency to make any legitimate argument and just goes straight to mocking people instead. Keep telling yourself you're a good guy!

I don't need to make an argument. It should be common sense to not make fun of people for physical disabilities or handicaps.

---

Waluigi1 posted...

it should be common sense to not make fun of people for physical disabilities or handicaps.

rampant ableism.

Please don't let the fact that disabilities make you uncomfortable get in the way of the rest of us having relationships with these people

---

The only one who has been ableist here is you, bud. Maybe even racist based on that Watermelon Lives Matter thing, though I'm not sure of the specifics on that one so I won't go that far.

---

Waluigi1 posted...

Maybe even racist based on that Watermelon Lives Matter thing, though I'm not sure of the specifics on that one so I won't go that far.

i won't go that far either but yeah, saying the watermelon lives matter thing was "only bad because fchamp said it" isn't a great look.

---

Waluigi1 posted...

I don't need to make an argument. It should be common sense to not make fun of people for physical disabilities or handicaps.

isn't talking in alternating caps/no caps LiKe tHiS mocking people with naturally low iqs/the mentally challenged?

---

Mr Lasastryke posted...

i won't go that far either but yeah, saying the watermelon lives matter thing was "only bad because fchamp said it" isn't a great look.

you are massively misremembering my argument, I wouldn't have done that because I literally have no idea who fchamp is.

The extent of my watermelon argument was essentially the same as this argument, humor is healing and bridge building so it doesn't make sense to pile on when someone does it bad. No one starts out making perfect jokes, except for me of course.

I made this argument and then someone pointed out it was a "black people like watermelon joke" which, again, I still personally wouldn't shame him for (I mean outside of the fact that it sucks shit as a joke), but I found the joke so incredibly distasteful that I withdrew my entire argument and defense. I'm still embarrassed that I didn't understand that joke before going into my rant (which is incredibly solid) and I actually am sorry I gave the poster, apparently named fchamp, even a lick of credit.


---

SantaRPidgey posted...

you are massively misremembering my argument, I wouldn't have done that because I literally have no idea who fchamp is.

uh i'm not, because i'm basing what i said on what you just posted in this topic.

the watermelon thing started with what you described. then later in a different topic (about stripey's parents being racist), you said posting a picture of a watermelon is "a lot tamer than what stripey's parents said" and that if the poster of the joke (fchamp) deserved to get publicy shamed over what he did, "stripey's parents should as well." this is what SEP was referring to when he said that you "unretracted" your argument in post #61 (kinda presumptuous to say based on what was actually there, sure, but he wasn't pulling his claim out of his ass either). in response to this, you said "Basically my arguments with board 8 are like supreme court arguments, I need to find someone who is palletable to defend," which... kind of makes it sound like you WOULD defend the joke, you just didn't because fchamp wasn't "palletable to defend"??

if you wouldn't defend the joke under any circumstances, it's all good, but you worded your point pretty confusingly then.

---

I don't remember the stripey topic so I could be way off base here

but "the watermelon joke was distasteful" and "what stripey's parents said was worse" are not mutually exclusive/contradictory statements. I see no retraction.
---

Oh my argument there was about how cancel culture is based on celebrities, and it's hypocritical that people are so willing to be okay with it in one context, but if its family and loved ones, it's tolerated and dealt with rationally. In that topic everyone said they had people in their lives that acted that way, but the idea to public shame them or call their work is ludicrous. Nothing there was said to reflect my own opinion of the right answer, just to shed light on that particular hypocrisy. (Also it was Sephy G's argument that I jumped on if I recall)

The second point you get at is me speaking in a sort of exaggerated hyperbolic manner. Again, I put a lot of nuance in my posts to both make them entertaining to read and to encourage a heavier reader engagement. To put it in simpler terms, watermelon joke is the KKK marching in the street and the ken jennings joke is a guy wearing a "No fat chicks" t-shirt. I believe free speech should protect both of them equally, but I'm not going to be the guy who fights for the KKK or defends them in any way even if I think they do need that defense.

and because it's you lasa I'll remove the artistry from my posts and make it clear that defending free speech= defending the social okayness of making bad jokes on twitter in this particular analogy.

---

Drakeryn posted...

but "the watermelon joke was distasteful" and "what stripey's parents said was worse" are not mutually exclusive/contradictory statements. I see no retraction.

yeah, this is where it gets gray area-ish. after santa had made his "what stripey's parents said was worse" post, SEP responded with something like "ok i thought you took back your defense of the watermelon joke but now you're defending it again?" and santa ignored him. so while santa never explicitly unretracted his retraction, i don't think it was completely unreasonable for SEP to assume that he did. and i'd say it's nonsensical for santa to say that SEP was "bullying" him by stating this assumption lol

---

SantaRPidgey posted...

and because it's you lasa I'll remove the artistry from my posts and make it clear that defending free speech= defending the social okayness of making bad jokes on twitter in this particular analogy.

ok thanks for the pointless insult.

---

Lasa the fact that you argue almost all points to an absurd literal degree (case in point, the previous post where you think I would ever on my life use the word "bully" unironically) is what makes you endearing and legitimately one of my favorite board users please don't take my tiny roast of you as an insult.

---