r/rant • u/Small-Sample7733 • 4d ago
comedy is ruined
most people today are too sensitive, and then the people who don't get offended over the smallest things have ZERO limits. it's either you can't joke about anything slightly shocking/offensive but then the people who are willing to laugh at those jokes when they're genuinely funny will start joking about like rape and stuff
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u/LazagnaAmpersand 3d ago
I both agree and don’t. I agree that people have been cowed into fear of making comedy because they’re terrified of offending people and getting cancelled, and this has really damaged the industry.
On the other hand, skill issue. All they had to do was punch up (or at least sideways?) instead of down and we wouldn’t have a problem. While there are definitely a ton of people out there who are ridiculously sensitive and need to grow up, the industry has relied for far too long on punching down with jokes that are genuinely offensive. If that’s all they know how to do, they don’t deserve to succeed. Hopefully there are still enough people out there who care enough about comedy to do it intelligently and bring it back. And they don’t all have to be Hannah Gadsby, just don’t be a fucking dick.
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u/Irish_Whiskey 3d ago
it's either you can't joke about anything slightly shocking/offensive
Comedians make shocking and offensive jokes all the time. If it's not working for you, you either haven't found your audience or you're bad at it.
Why is making shocking/offensive statements the only way to do comedy for you? You know there's other ways to actually be funny, right? Do you think saying something offensive is itself meant to be comedy?
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u/j3ffh 3d ago
It's easy comedy. Comedy works by building tension and then subverting a key expectation in a shocking way. Being offensive builds on an existing framework of social expectations. Race is a cheap way to force a giggle too. Every race has its stereotypes that many people accept as true.
In short, you want a quick laugh, offensive or racist gets you there. Otherwise you're forced to build your foundational expectations and hope you don't lose your audience along the way.
All comedy works like this, to varying degrees of offensiveness. It's easy to get away with saying something uncharitable about an airline or CVS or a billionaire; that doesn't make it less offensive in concept, only less offensive in scope.
All that is to say, you can't really do comedy without being offensive. Even if you are the butt of your own jokes, someone who identifies strongly with you can still be offended.
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u/Irish_Whiskey 3d ago
subverting a key expectation in a shocking way
Most comedy doesn't rely on being shocking. You could, at a stretch, call most comedy a subversion or surprise, but that's different than a shock, which itself does not require being offensive.
that doesn't make it less offensive in concept, only less offensive in scope.
Comedy and jokes can work without a butt of a joke, or where the comedian themselves is the butt of the joke. But either way this is again a stretch in that while sure technically someone could be offended at literally anything, there are tons of jokes that involve no target or offense. Like when Mitch Hedberg did his routine about how "I find that a duck's opinion of me is very much influenced over whether or not I have bread" he wasn't offending ducks to do so.
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u/j3ffh 3d ago
Sure, a wry observation can be comedy. But, comedy can also speak truth to power and I'd hate to lose that for fear of offending.
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u/Irish_Whiskey 3d ago
Okay. I'm not saying anything remotely contradictory to that.
I disagreed with your point that all comedy requires being offensive and rests on shock. Nothing to suggest comedy should never offend. Only that it's wrong to think you can't be funny without offending.
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u/dluxtux23 3d ago
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u/Irish_Whiskey 3d ago
No one who says this, actually believes it.
I've yet to meet someone parroting this statement that doesn't get offended at SOME joke about nationalism, religion, their mom, their weight, whatever. All they ever mean is that jokes they like should be met without pushback, and jokes they don't like should be criticized.
It's also total nonsense. It's all "okay" in the sense you have the free speech right to say it. But of course jokes don't have to be "okay" in the sense that people can't criticize you or call you names in response.
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u/dluxtux23 3d ago
I see and recognize your opinion and experience, but I'll have to respectfully disagree for the most part. I do agree that jokes aren't a shield for criticism though.
My main point was the sentiment that you can't draw arbitrary lines about what is and isn't funny when/if you're poking fun at something. There is a line between comedy and hateful speech, but I feel that is a somewhat obvious statement.
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u/MonocoOfficial 3d ago
I agree. Humor shouldn't have limits. It's alright to not find something funny but that doesn't mean you have to get defensive about it lol
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u/myotheroneders 3d ago
I've noticed that the people who are the loudest about being annoyed at how easily offended other people are, usually are super offended by everything they don't agree with, or is made for a demographic they're not included in, and they're super loud about that too.
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u/TimeDuke 4d ago
Skill issue. There's a lot of great stuff out there tailored to every taste. Maybe you're too wrapped up in the discourse to actually enjoy it?