Jokes & Political Correctness, Is there a limit?

[SPUNKY]

Ok, here's one for you lot to get your teeth into.

In today's climate of political correctness that invades our daily lives on a constant basis is there a limit as to how far a joke can be taken or a topic that is totally off limits?

Leaving out ethnic racism and personal attacks - I'm talking about medical conditions, hair colour, obesity etc etc.

Personally, If you can see the joke in the context in which it was meant I feel there really is nothing to get upset about.

[anythinggoes]

Ok, here's one for you lot to get your teeth into.

In today's climate of political correctness that invades our daily lives on a constant basis is there a limit as to how far a joke can be taken or a topic that is totally off limits?

Leaving out ethnic racism and personal attacks - I'm talking about medical conditions, hair colour, obesity etc etc.

Personally, If you can see the joke in the context in which it was meant I feel there really is nothing to get upset about.

to me the touchier the subject the funnier the Joke but i have low morals so anythinggoes fitting really eh

[monkeychow]

well basicly nothing offends me except passing off insulting another human as clever or funny. Thats more just pathetic to me. But thats not the point of this thread huh!

I think its a balance.

On one hand so much of society is encouraging us to be selfish, amoral and bastardly people lacking in any empathy to others, so we have to be careful not to encourage this behaviour by trivilising serious matters with humour then displacing them from our minds.

On the other hand, a serious world is a dull world, and sometimes a bit of humour on a serious topic can provide a welcome bit of relief for what we all know is a horrible topic, and give us all reasons to keep going in this tragic world!

[Danny Top Hat]

A few years ago you had to be careful what you said and we all hated it. 

Now the PC brigade is pretty much dead and it'd be lame to complain about it.  I love that South Park can joke about gingers, Jews, AIDs and terrorists without being edited - that's just great.  Shock humour tends to be funny.

On the other hand, some shows seem to think that saying anything un-PC is automatically gonna be funny.  This leads to bad taste and poor form.  I'm actually only thinking about Family Guy here but i'm sure there are other examples.

I don't think there's any real limit - these jokes become offensive only when they cease to be funny.

[Elrothiel]

I fucking hate political correctness!!! I'll say whatever I like WHEN ever I like and I ain't gunna let no know-nothing-know-it-all tell me what I can and can't say. If I wanna make a joke about ...... I dunno... AIDS for example, I'll make one. It doesn't mean I don't fucking care about those people! It doesn't mean jack! Its a fucking joke! Take it as it is, not how the government wants you to see it as!!
Grrrrrrrrrrrr.... fucking hell!! At college today we all met our new visual theory tutor, and she's cool, but I DEFINITELY think that before the year is out we are gunna have one helluva charisma war. It was already happening today! I made an un-politically-correct joke, and I was so not expecting her to pick on me for it cuz she seemed like a cool person, but then she just went "Hmmm, just wondering, do you have any problems with .... " and I have NO problems with anyone whatsoever, I was just making a joke!
This woman is pretty charismatic, but she's probably SOOOO not used to people with a bigger charisma than her... like me!
I can definitely see a huge clash happening some way along the line... and it won't be pretty. Nuuuuh uh. No way Jos?!

Can't wait though! I wanna open up a can of whoop-ass on her and show her the kinda charisma that she only DREAMS about! Muhahahahaaaaa!!!

[Decadence]

Ok, here's one for you lot to get your teeth into.

In today's climate of political correctness that invades our daily lives on a constant basis is there a limit as to how far a joke can be taken or a topic that is totally off limits?

Leaving out ethnic racism and personal attacks - I'm talking about medical conditions, hair colour, obesity etc etc.

Personally, If you can see the joke in the context in which it was meant I feel there really is nothing to get upset about.

To me, I know a lot of un PC people and I can take what they say in the spirit they mean it, usually.  If I think they're being seriously bigoted or causing upset to people for no good reason and with intent, then I'll take them up on it purely because I object to it and I'm always one to say what I think - which is usually their defence too. 

There's a difference to me between saying things in the spirit of good humour and in directly and purposefully insulting someone based on personal attributes - be it racism, sexism, the colour of their hair or their weight. 

I guess it's about showing some respect and appropriateness for me.  I can take a bad taste joke or whatever as well as anyone, but I get uncomfortable when there are obviously people around who are upset by it, and I think tact can often be a good thing! 

One thing I do have an issue with is differentiating between say, fat jokes and racist or sexist jokes.  I don't really understand why it's still acceptable to insult someone on the basis of their size when people now are always so careful not to insult people based on other personal attributes/aspects of their appearance.  Surely it's all the same thing?  Making someone feel shit due to the way they look or a shallow aspect of who they are. 

I don't think it's fair to be picking and choosing what's PC and what's not.  I think there's a difference between whether or not you agree with un PC comments and whether something *is* an un PC comment.

Personally, I always think as soon as someone resorts to shallow insults in an argument, they've lost it and are falling back on the easiest way of scoring a point.

As for whether there's a limit to how far un PC stuff can go - for me the limit is when you cross the line between what's acceptable and what's not based on the situation you're in, and that's for you to judge and live with. 

[Sakib]

Of course theres a limit to political correctness. most people that complain about PC tend to be very Incorrect

[Decadence]

In my personal life, I probably wouldn't choose to be around someone who was easily offended by any kind of humor.? Who wants to spend time with someone when you have to constantly watch what you say?

But at work, it's a different story.? You have to watch what you say, be politically correct, or you will lose your job.? For example, I was at? training on sexual harrassment.? We were watching a video and my friend/co-worker made some joke about the guy in the video being gay. Most people in the room laughed, including the company president, and there were at least 100 people there.? But apparently one person got their poor little feelings hurt and filed a complaint with human resouces.? Next thing we know, my friend is in her supervisor's office getting written up for work misconduct.? She's lucky she didn't get fired.? Taking political correctness to that extreme is ridiculous.? People need to be able to deal with a silly joke now and then.?

But maybe if she was the odd one out in a room of 100 people who all seemed to feel negatively toward her or seemed to ridicule her, it might not seem so light hearted.  It's hard to say until you're the one in that situation and feeling the embarrassment of having a whole room full of people seem to laugh at something that is personal to you.  I'd like to think I'd take it in the spirit it was meant, as a silly joke, or whatever, but then again, it must be pretty awkward feeling singled out to that extent.

[Elrothiel]

I fuckin' agree with you Sterling!

Yesterday at college, I was daydreaming, and me and my friend were chatting about Team America, and the tutor said "And after you come back after lunch, John will only give you a half hour lecture because he's ill, we don't know what he's got but it's not that bad..."
And me and my friend were chattin' about the AIDS song in TA, and I said "he's got aaaaaids..." in a sort of faraway jokey manner... and the tutor just went "Goodness that's a bit extreme!"...
And then later I said something about someone being gay, and the bloody tutor said in a sorta mock interested manner "have you got a problem... AIDS... gays...?"

Stupid bitch.