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originally posted by: SprocketUK
a reply to: woodwardjnr
Yeah, I know what you mean.
I also have a guilty love of Chubby Brown. He's not cutting edge, not politically astute, just coarse and vulgar, but he does make me laugh. (That's another one the mrs wont come with me to watch)
originally posted by: Morrad
This is the title of an article on Spike Online by Mick Hume, Editor (loving this magazine, it is so thought provoking)
Comedy is suffering under a stifling atmosphere of conformism and intolerance. It appears that any joke judged to have crossed a line must be not just ignored, but condemned, censured and, if possible, censored. That, in turn, has given rise to a pathetic backlash of comedians and provocateurs trying to be offensive for the sake of it. The rest of us risk being left with the worst of both unfunny worlds.
Good jokes are generally in bad taste. They tend to mock the respectable rules and morals of society. By its nature comedy is always controversial, pushing as it must at the limits of what passes for taste and decency in any era. It is hard to think of a good joke that would not offend somebody. That is why there have long been attempts to control what is deemed ‘acceptable’ humour and to censor what is not. And why many writers and comedians have tried to subvert the rules.
However, as with other issues in the free-speech wars, the terrain has shifted. Once the complaints were about blasphemous and indecent comedy, and the censors were conservative politicians, policemen and priests. Now the protests are more often against comedians accused of breaking the new taboos – racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and the other usual suspects. And the demands to shut them down tend to be led not by old-fashioned prudes but by radical online activists, the liberal media and even other comedians. Backed up in the UK by broadcast regulators, politicians and the newly PC police.
So what do you guys think? Is there a limit to acceptable humour? Should comedians and comedy artists be policed or allowed free artistic expression? Is it artistic expression?
I have mixed feelings on this. There is evidence that humour is a positive coping mechanism. Today we are continually bombarded with traumatic events in glorifying detail. I have personally seen 'emotional blunting' in family and friends, compounded by a dry, tongue-in-cheek sense of humour from several of them (maybe this is a British thing?).
One of the comments below the article caught my eye.
'It's now very common to hear people say, "I'm rather offended by that", as if that gives them certain rights. It's no more than a whine. It has no meaning, it has no purpose, it has no reason to be respected as a phrase.
Link
originally posted by: Morrad
So what do you guys think? Is there a limit to acceptable humour? Should comedians and comedy artists be policed or allowed free artistic expression? Is it artistic expression?
Can you imagine how utterly, intensely, desperately boring life would be if the bleeding hearts brigade could decide what we are allowed to consider funny?