Questioning sense of humour

[mcj metroid]

I've seen this come in threads before all the time. About murders, rapes and sexual orientations and stereotypes.

 

here's my story

 

We were watching a horror movie called " I spit on your grave"( the remake) now this film basically is about a novelist who stays alone in the woods in some part of the US. 3 guys come in and rape her and thinks she's dead. Then she begins haunting the shit out of them and kills them each in Mad creative ways akin to the saw series.

Basically me and my close friends love horror movies because we were laughing all the way through the rape scene.. One of our house mates storms upstairs during it and says " you lot are SICK there's nothing funny about rape"..

 

I know there is nothing funny about rape in real-life but is it wrong to laugh about it in a movie? Where do we draw the line of what should be funny or not?

Edited June 1, 2011 by mcj metroid

[MoogleViper]

Anything can be funny. The funnier something is, the more it can get away with. So if you tell a joke and people get offended, it's because you're not funny enough.

[The Peeps]

It depends what you were laughing at. If you were all sitting there laughing purely because a woman was getting raped, then yeah that's poor taste. If you were laughing at bad acting or whatever then it's fine :p

[Wesley]

Yeah I sometimes have that sort of reaction from people.

 

It's hard to know what's an acceptable joke with some people.

 

At the studio the designers are all pretty sick but the programmers aren't so much, so when we're all together I sometimes forget and go "too far".

 

The other day we were talking about the new Madeline book and someone stupidly asked if she'd wrote it, half jokingly.

 

I then said something like, "It's not her Ann Frank diary [or something]; although if it was I'd love to read the sex scenes."

 

That was just met with silence from most.

 

The designers thought it was funny, but in the presence of those who don't some kind of mute themselves.

 

But... I dunno.

 

FUCK 'EM!

Edited June 1, 2011 by Wesley

[Pancake]

If you were laughing all through the film - fine! If you only laughed during the rape scene - possibly not fine! I'm sure you guys can be secure in yourselves, knowing that you don't actually fine rape in itself funny.

 

I pretty much hold the view that anything in a film can be laughed at. Cos IT'S A FILM.

[dwarf]

I'm offended when people get offended.

 

i.e. when a complaint is made.

 

It depends if you or someone is telling a joke directly aimed at someone (for example somebody who is bereaving a rape&murder victim) or if it's towards a crowd, in which case some might not find it funny because they have a personal issue - which is fine - just don't make a song and dance about how it was insensitive.

 

Everyone laughs at things which might offend them were they to have suffered the knock-backs themselves. Who gives, eh?

[heroicjanitor]

I laugh when I rape, I don't see the problem with it.

[Wesley]

Specifically laughing at rape, when it's meant to be a joke, is fine I suppose.

 

I laugh at rape jokes.

 

I don't find rape itself funny, it's sick.

 

I often can't bear to watch rape scenes in certain things, Clockwork Orange is awful to get through.

[The Peeps]

I prefer to call it a struggle snuggle

[ReZourceman]

Or Surprise Sex.

 

[Wesley]

I've never heard the struggle snuggle before, that's awesome.

[ReZourceman]

But no. No subject is out of bounds. People who get offended can fuck right off, because I can guarantee I'd hate their fucking guts. Especially about stupid fucking things like religion or rape. Rape was only even invented so people could make rape jokes, get over it.

 

-------------------------

 

Edited June 1, 2011 by ReZourceman

[MoogleViper]

But no. No subject is out of bounds. People who get offended can fuck right off, because I can guarantee I'd hate their fucking guts. Especially about stupid fucking things like religion or rape. Rape was only even evented so people could make rape jokes, get over it.

 

Really? I must have missed that one. Was it a public or a private event?

[ReZourceman]

Whenever I have sex its an event. When I rape is no exception.

[MoogleViper]

Whenever I have sex its an event. When I rape is no exception.

 

I thought they were one and the same?

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

It's not rape, it's just sex you didn't know you wanted.

 

Seriously, though, as I've made it clear before, I believe that anything can be made fun of. It's of course fine if people don't find something funny or gets offended by it, but I won't hear complaints about it; people should steer clear of the stuff they're offended by. Nobody forces them to sit through it. Everyone has different tastes and needs to respect those of others.

[Beast]

I agree. I mean, I find edgy comedy funny. I like comedians who aren't scared to push the limits, I think they're the funniest, it's the reason why I love Jimmy Carr so much. I've laughed at seriously bad horror movies such as Dard Divorce, which is possibly the most violent movie I've ever seen and I've seen quite a few but the acting and directing was so bad and the story was so random, I couldn't help but laugh. There were parts where I was like "Wow, that's disgusting. Too much!" but I couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous it was.

 

I don't mind any kind of jokes as long as they don't mean it maliciously. I suppose I have a very laid-back attitude like that though. As I've said a few times on here in the past, I think people should let their hair down and relax sometimes because the problem with jokes is that they can offend anybody. Like some people may find abortion jokes funny and others wouldn't. Some may find racist jokes funny and others wouldn't. Some may find sexist jokes and others wouldn't. In the end, you can't really please everybody so if you find it funny, that's cool. Obviously you need a little bit of sensitivity and you need to see if it sounds like you're being malicious and nasty. I think it's okay to laugh at what you want within reason. I mean, if someone said a joke and they meant it to be malicious, then that's different. (I don't know if that last part made sense but I hope someone gets it, lmao).

 

I didn't think there was anything funny about that rape scene in I Spit on your Grave but that's just my taste, what exactly WAS you laughing at though? Was it the acting? The way it was done?

[Cube]

It's not rape, it's just natural mating.

[Jonnas]

I don't mind jokes about rape (struggle snuggle ), it's the same as any joke. Making a "fat guys" joke doesn't mean you're insulting fat people, making a sexist joke doesn't mean you're sexist, making a racist joke doesn't mean you are racist, etc.

 

Problem is, if you're not funny, people tend to not understand what it was that you could've possibly find funny. They don't see it as a joke, they end up seeing/hearing only the raw contents and feeling disgusted.

Also, people that are particular sensitive to these aspects may never find such a joke funny, simply because disgust overweights sense of humour in that particular case.

 

Simply put, it's just a case of good sense and knowing your audience. If you think the person whom you're telling the joke might draw the line there, you don't tell it, nor do you loudly laugh at it.

 

That said, I find baffling the amount of programs/series/films/people that think that "edgy themes" (rape, violence, murder, etc.) are funny by themselves, no clever joke necessary. That disgusts me, but, like someone already said, if there was a good joke attached to it, I'd laugh.

[ReZourceman]

I fucking hate fat, black women.

[Beast]

That said, I find baffling the amount of programs/series/films/people that think that "edgy themes" (rape, violence, murder, etc.) are funny by themselves, no clever joke necessary. That disgusts me, but, like someone already said, if there was a good joke attached to it, I'd laugh.

 

This is basically what I tried to say earlier, haha. It's good to joke sometimes.

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

I mean, if someone said a joke and they meant it to be malicious, then that's different. (I don't know if that last part made sense but I hope someone gets it, lmao).

 

The thing is, a joke does in no way reflect an opinion. They're completely unrelated. I find the fact that some people mistake jokes for honest opinions quite worrying, actually.

[dwarf]

^ I think the fact that they largely suggest an opinion (in many cases) is what offends people most.

[Daft]

Objectivity does not exist. So nothing you do is ever really intrinsically wrong or right. Even rape.

 

No, wait. I didn't mean to justify rape.

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

^ I think the fact that they largely suggest an opinion (in many cases) is what offends people most.

 

I quite agree, but then they need to focus on the person's actual opinions, not whatever opinions they assume he has based on his jokes. It's the erronous assumption that sentiment of joke = actual opinion that really bothers me. Especially since it seems more like a 50/50 split to me between people who mean what they joke about and people who don't.