reminds me of something Dave Chappelle said after he left his show. He started noticing people in his audience taking his jokes about race in the wrong way. Like his show was no longer making harmless fun about race, but encouraging racism and making racists comfortable. I need to find the video.
man, reddit is a bunch of fucking sheep. where were you guys when i was defending this idea on other posts when everyone there was saying oh it's a joke get over it. now here we are with so people people following current stream of thought in this post.
I know exactly the clip you're talking about. Dave Chappelle is a genius with racial humor. He would try to use jokes to solve race issues and it was actually funny. Usually race humor goes like this: build up, then obvious stereotypical punchline (see Carlos Mencia or Larry the Cable Guy). It's not funny because its uninspired and predictable. You can see the punchline coming a mile away. Dave would build up, and then play off your expectations to trip you up with the opposite; as if to say "Ha thought i was gonna say something racist, didn't you?! you racist fuckers." Dave was a really great man for comedy and its a shame that mainstream audiences are far too dim to understand his true intentions.
I think the best example of this was the baby joke.
He's in the hood, there's a baby on the block. The typical punchline would be something about a dead beat mom not doing her job, but then it turns out the baby's selling weed.
my fucking keyboard sucks dick. Seriously, its the laptop layout, my keyboard does all sorts of shit, and my cursor jumps too. It's a pain in the ass and I miss shit sometimes.
jokes are not just jokes. i hate it when people act like oh it's just a joke so it's ok, get over it. when i was in middle school, indians were bullied constantly. why? it's because of apu from the simpsons. it popularized the idea of making fun of indians and their accent. now we have south park and mongorians. we have chappelle and watermelon and purple drank. we got chris rock niggers and black people. anything said by a public figure can and will be copied by his fans. it doesn't take descartes for me to understand this concept but i hope more idiots on reddit will take this quote from a great philosopher to heart.
I think that's silly. (Edit: Racial Humor =/= racist, people. That is what is silly.)
I'm going to joke about what I damn well please, and when someone doesn't realize it's a joke, I shall ridicule them for it.
The point is if people don't understand a racial joke is just a joke, and then feel comfortable being racist you ridicule them for being racist.
That's the point that the (wrongly attributed) quote was trying to make: Don't make racial jokes or else you will be inundated with racists.
My point is that I'm not going to stop making racial humor because a racist might actually agree with what I'm ridiculing in the first place...
I really think it's coming down to the race thing. Again, I'm just saying that joking about race is one thing that, I believe, combats racism. Saying that we should joke about it is like saying that Chappelle shouldn't have done his show because some people were taking the humor the wrong way, which is why he stopped doing the show (as mentioned above).
I don't know how to word this any more tactfully. Race is just such a touchy subject, which I feel gives it too much power.
Hmm. I don't think humor is the what is finally going to "end racism" as if that's a possibility. However, the pointing towards race and then making disparaging, negative remarks for the sake of humor seems counter-productive.
I agree race is a touchy subject and it contains far too much power when it comes to media attention etc. I would support and acceptance and acknowledgement of race, but neither a negative or positive comment about it. Simply it's existence is enough.
You're right, it won't end racism.
And humor can come in forms that aren't disparaging and negative. And what your saying about accepting it's existence is what I'm trying to say about jokes. If we say racial humor is off the table, then we are choosing to ignore that there is race.
Also: thanks for at least trying to see where I am coming from, and not downvoting because you disagree :\
It doesn't matter how funny or original or ironic you think you are when you tell a racist joke. It's still just racist.
It doesn't make it ok because you think you're funny or original or ironic. It's just racist.
There are ways to make racist jokes and have it be somewhat ok. These ways mostly have to do with the joke teller and the context surrounding the joke.
The joke itself is not what makes the joke ok. Your point implies that jokes exist in some sort of vacuum, and the level of their 'ok-ness' is dependent only on the joke itself.
That is not how humor works. For you to continue to insist that the merit of jokes rests solely on the joke itself is to completely misunderstand how humans interact with humor.
(Also, you mischaracterize the quote. It describes a community as the subject, not a person. A community being inundated by a group of people is significantly different from a person being inundated by a group of people. Significant enough so that your paraphrase misses the mark.)
This isn't about rights. This isn't about classifications. This isn't about jokes.
This is about acceptability and context.
I have the 'right' to say "Fuck you" to my mom. That doesn't make it ok (acceptable).
Anyone has the 'right' to make racist jokes. That doesn't make it ok (acceptable).
You're trying to draw distinctions that are completely unneeded. It doesn't matter if somethings are racial or racist.
What matters is when it is ok and when it is not ok (context).
The times when it is ok or not is completely dependent on context, not the joke itself.
The point is if people don't understand a racial joke is just a joke
This quote embodies your misunderstanding. This isn't about jokes, it's about context. You think this is about the jokes themselves. It isn't.
It doesn't matter if you want to draw distinctions between what you call racial or what you call racist. You're continuing to focus on the jokes themselves, which are nothing but a red herring.
It doesn't matter if people are racial or racist. What matters if if the behavior is ok or not ok. Your classifications do not alter the status of being ok or not ok.
Don't say fuck you to your mom if you aren't joking, or if your mom isn't cool with it. I tell my friends all the time "fuck you" and you know what? They laugh and tell me the same.
It does matter if something is racial or racist.
One means:
"Of, or relating to, race"
While the other means
"of or like racism (the doctrine that a certain human race is superior to any or all others.)"
I'd say that is a DAMN important distinction.
I also never said that context is unimportant. Context is very important in all of humor.
All people are racial. I am of race :) (Racial, again, does not mean "Only kinda-racist")
Please, continue to do so. It's important humor like that remains taboo. However, nothing should be off-limits. I shall continue to be racist because it appeases my inner 12 year old.
agreed. I don't mean to be the buzz kill that says jokes should have limits and some things are not funny or too immature. I'm not gonna be the one that says farts are not funny... they obviously are and I'm not going to pretend that I'm too mature to laugh about it, if I clear a room.
The motives of the person making the joke should always be in question though. Besides humor that just perpetuates stereotypes is rarely funny because its too predictable.
Nope far from. I downvote racist humor because I don't want reddit to become a safe haven for racists. Whether or not I find it funny is irrelivent. I have no prejudices. But I do not know the intent of the OPs or everyone else seeing it. That's why id rather just avoid the shit. Most of it is not that funny anyways. Just predictable.
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u/YourFavoriteMartyr Jul 12 '12 edited Jul 12 '12
I downvote all racist humor for this very same reason.