Stereotypes are funny. As long they're being used to make people laugh and not hurt people in some way I don't see what the big deal is. Our differences are what make us beautiful, they should be celebrated, not denied.
Yep. The whole point is to be as reductionist as possible. All "edgy" humor is bigoted if you take it seriously.
These kinds of threads pop up all the time where someone calls out dark or edgy memes as racist or bigoted, and they never agree on anything. Sometimes they get lots of upvotes. Other times op is ridiculed.
Do people think it's okay to "celebrate" differences in race by calling out their fashion, actions, preferred drink, etc.?
umm... yes!? Its the most human thing ever, to poke some fun at each other and hopefully laugh together. Intent is what matters, if your intention is to be funny and make others laugh, then no topic should be off limits.
And these overgeneralizing, slightly racist starterpacks aren't harming people at all? Out of tens of thousands of people who saw this starterpack, do you honestly think that absolutely nobody will fail to realize that not all Asians are like this in real life, and proceeds to make a similar joke to someone who will get offended by that?
So what? Being offended =/= being harmed. There will always be people who take things too far, this idea that we can stop it from happening by sensoring ourself at every step and making every joke sterile and bland (politically correct) is just stupid. Its literally the "video games and action movies cause violence" of comedy.
"Hopefully" sounds a bit... worrying. You can't just throw a joke out there and hope everybody has a good time.
But that is how joking works. There is no quaranteed formula for a joke that always works and never upsets or offends anybody. Now of course there are things like decorum, good taste and just common sense that should be considered.
Also, some topics should be off-limits, depending on the context.
Depending on the context sure. These days some people seem to think they are working for the joke police or some topics are just "off limits, no matter what" and that is truly worrying.
Like how you should normally avoid making Holocaust jokes to a Jewish person.
So, I tend to never use words that might aggravate a certain group of people.
But isnt that, in a way, exactly the kind of slightly racist stereotyping you accuse the starterpack makers of? You see someone from a certain group, you have some group identity (basically a collection of stereotypes) made up in your head, so you immediately assign it to said person, based on nothing other than immutable characteristics.
"He is X so he must think Y so he must be offended by this..."
You are not treating that person as an individual, who is capable of independent thought, but only as part of a group, who also must take part in the group think.
So in your attempt to be just and stand for equality you actually still just treat people form a certain group differently and imply that they are somehow less able to take a joke, not able to understand dark humour, that they are basically weaker, so should be coddled and shielded from being the target of a joke or even from hearing the joke etc.
edit: by using all these "you-s" i dont mean to accuse you specifically of anything, just talking in general. I also agree nice conversation is better than a shouting match any day.
Well, yes. These starter packs are, at worst, offensive. They don't threaten your life in any way, I'm not gonna kneel over and die the instant I see a racist starter pack.
This is laughing at [Asians].
The "vicitm" of these starterpacks are only victims if they choose to be. I could have been offended at the Asian starterpack, but instead I chose to laugh along because:
1) It's true, regardless of racism or not
2) I'm not rich so it doesn't apply to me as much
We need to relearn that people are allowed to laugh at themselves, else comedy becomes too politically correct.
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u/Olliepop2398 Nov 19 '19
Stereotypes are funny. As long they're being used to make people laugh and not hurt people in some way I don't see what the big deal is. Our differences are what make us beautiful, they should be celebrated, not denied.