Dark comedy

[alice]

One doesn't necessarily have to be PC to object to tasteless humor.

If indeed it was funny at all.

Something can be funny, and either be PC or not PC.
And then something can also be not funny, whether it's PC or not.

The disabled comedian that I mentioned in my post above - I didn't find him overly funny. And I wouldn't have found his jokes overly funny whether or not he was disabled. It wasn't whether they were tasteful or not - I found some of his humour a little amusing but overall I just didn't find his jokes very good, or very funny.
Others obviously disagreed with me, and found him genuinely funny.
But then there would have been a percentage of those who found him funny who would have NOT found him funny if he'd told the same jokes but not been disabled.
If he'd been an able-bodied, non-disabled person, putting on an act of being disabled to tell the same jokes, then suddenly his same jokes would have been considered by some to be insensitive and derogatory toward the disabled, and tasteless, etc etc. And instead of getting bookings with high profile media shows and even disability organisations, he would have got a heap of bad press and public lectures on how hurtful and politically incorrect he and his jokes were.
So those are the hypocrites and those are the people who are really doing the discriminating. If they were honest with themselves, they would find the humour either funny, or not funny, regardless of the person. If they only found the humour funny when they knew the person was disabled, then if they were honest with themselves, effectively they were really only laughing at the disabled man telling disabled jokes. Did the fact that he was disabled make the jokes funnier, or did the fact that he was disabled remove any feelings that it was 'wrong' to laugh at, and about, the disabled?
That hypocrisy is the same whether it's humour about disability, race, religion, or anything else.

I don't know if that made sense, but it's essentially my long-winded way of saying I agree with Gob's comment, copied below.

Here's the nub though, if it's funny, but not "PC" is it still funny? I'd argue, as others have, that the automatic condemnation for any humour which involves some aspect of race, is unwarranted, and only stirs up trouble.

[Rick]

I don't know man

If it's on the edge it had better be funny...

[loCAtek]

To presume that someone has to be "black" to be able to be 'part' of the culture is not only helping to entrench stereotypes, it's also racial discrimination..

Not exactly, White folks can be part of the sub-culture of HipHop/Rap, but I don't think they ever truly be a part of the over all black culture. Take a black person away from the music scene, say take away their street clothes, and they will still be treated as black people. Take the street clothes off a white person and they will be treated as a white person, which is to say better than black people. Put a black man in a suit and tie, shoot, make him President, and there are those who will still see nothing but his skin color.
My observations on shared experiences note that you can get close to the black experience, but you can't fully experience it unless you are black.

I'll say this: Eminem isn't a bad Rap artist, but frankly there are better ones out there who just aren't getting the record labels. Promoters have focused on dirty, angry artists who are the more thuggish the better. If anyone is entrenching stereotypes it's the industry.


A local artist with talent, not image;


ChiBling's cuzzin

[loCAtek]

You refer to your friends who grew up in a "black neighbourhood" and seemed to put down the friend who blended in with the culture of the area he grew up in. .

Precisely because he didn't blend in, for no one's sake am I going to say he did. I've walked with him and no matter how ghetto he dresses, he's till treated more respectfully than a black person.

To add, I don't know him well but my first friend who grew up in San Fransisco, has a brother. That brother's baby's mama is a black woman, that's how much he embraces black culture. Yet still, when he goes to jail, the 'whites' insist he side with them, and the 'blacks' won't accept him. (Unless somebody recognizes him) Does he get in hella lotta brawls? 'Cha

The overall culture still hasn't arrived, is what I'm saying.

[Gob]

I don't know man

If it's on the edge it had better be funny...

The mark of good comedy is the ability to push boundaries and still make people laugh eh?

[Rick]

I don't know man

If it's on the edge it had better be funny...

The mark of good comedy is the ability to push boundaries and still make people laugh eh?

Conversely if it's not,

It deserves the criticism it receives...

[Gob]

I don't think you'll get much argument on that.

[thestoat]

Actually I was arguing that Mathers didn't grow up in a predominately black neighborhood.

Again based on the information that I had, which is he lived in MO until he was 12, and when he lived in MI he lived in Warren which is overwhelmingly white.

Weasel was the one that introduced the term "wigga" that accompanied his assertion...

Ah - I just realised that by "Weasel" you mean "Stoat", Keld, i.e. me. Once again you haven't read what is going on. Lo introduced the term, I did not.

[liberty]

Was your next meal Brunswick stew?

Actually squirrel is quite tasty a lot better than rabbit or venison. It is true that squirrels are rodents but so are rabbits and they don't taste nearly as good.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Having had all three, I prefer venison then rabbit with squirrel the least desirable. But then again, we cooked the squirrel over a campfire without all the seasoning/breadcrumbs and whatever else you might prepare a meal with.

[liberty]

Having had all three, I prefer venison then rabbit with squirrel the least desirable. But then again, we cooked the squirrel over a campfire without all the seasoning/breadcrumbs and whatever else you might prepare a meal with.

Cooking venison is a real a art; if not prepared correctly it has an unappealing gamy taste. Good venison requires a game cook and my mother is one of the very best. She required her skills in the rural Louisiana delta during the great depression at a time when wild meat made up a large portion a families meat diet. The Sunday chicken dinner was a rare thing unless it was the neighbors chicken which by the way was a shooting offense.

[loCAtek]

Was your next meal Brunswick stew?

Actually squirrel is quite tasty a lot better than rabbit or venison. It is true that squirrels are rodents but so are rabbits and they don't taste nearly as good.

Not to be picky, but rabbits are lagomorphs, not rodents.

[liberty]

Was your next meal Brunswick stew?

Actually squirrel is quite tasty a lot better than rabbit or venison. It is true that squirrels are rodents but so are rabbits and they don't taste nearly as good.

Not to be picky, but rabbits are lagomorphs, not rodents.

Well shame on my survival instructor. We were discussing small game snares and techniques when he referred to the other member of the rodent family, the rabbit.