Can Jokes be Offensive yet Funny? #36

There are many incidents that had influenced me to end up here writing this. Today jokes will be in the spotlight but not the innocent ones, I’m talking about the “pure evils”/ offensive jokes.

These are some incidents that made me think about it:

#1 YouTubers often intentionally/unintentionally make offensive jokes. In the worst case for hurting people’s sentiment or setting fire on a sensitive issue they are compelled to delete that video or take that down. Most often I watch this kind of things and move on, but there are people who will take it to another level and make it a “thing”.
Content creators are always pushing their boundaries, testing the audience’s limit of tolerance never knowing when to stop.

One day I was watching a video of Felix Kjellberg (better known as PewDiePie) where he was talking about his old videos.

“I used to make a lot of offensive jokes back then. I thought it’s cool because it’s offensive.”
Felix Kjellberg aka PewDiePie

And surprisingly enough Felix isn’t the only person to do that on internet. Offensive jokes is all the rage now- somehow being “edgy” is cooler than being “Kind and compassionate”.

#2 A renowned American singer posted a photo of Hindu Goddess on her social media account. Everybody in India lost their mind after seeing this photo. The singer was slammed by many not for paying proper respect to our Goddess. Personally I didn’t find anything disrespectful in that post though.
However I have come across plenty of tweets/social media posts, merchandizes depicting Hindu Gods and Goddesses disrespectfully- I don’t understand how when it became okay to make religion a joke.

#3 This is taken from one of the stand up comedian’s script. I was watching his show with one of my cousins. The joke started like :

Jack: Let me tell you a joke. One day one man was sitting in a bar.
Feminist: Why only man will sit in the bar? Your world resolves around men only!
Jack: OK then one day one lady was sitting in the bar…
Feminist: You don’t pay respect to women, you sexist! How dare you make a joke on a woman sitting in the bar?
(To be continued)

The joke wasn’t even finished and my cousin started telling me, “You know what? This is not even funny! Feminism is such a serious issue. Those idiots are making joke out of it. What a male-dominant society we live in. “
Comedy is purely subjective. What is offensive to one, may not be offensive to another.

#4 A meme, showing hand of a coalmine worker claiming it as,
“hands after making out with a girl from XYZ place”. (Implying the dark skin of the girls native to that place)
Everybody lost their shit in the comment section of that post.

#5 I’m putting it in a general way. Very often we insult people on purpose and just to be in the safe side we add “never mind!” / “just kidding”. This is the smartest way to burn people without fire and only the victim know how it was.

#6 One guy asked a British celebrity chef, Gordon Ramsay to comment on a photo of a popular south Indian cuisine. The chef responded to him calling it “jail food”. No wonder this time also people didn’t let him go.

I could tell many such incidents but I think these are enough for the reader to get the essence.

There are 2 perspectives of it.

I. Who is cracking the joke- No matter how the joke is, who’s telling it thinks it is funny. Same with offensive jokes. Undoubtedly we enjoy getting away with offending people in the name of jokes. Sometimes we do it on purpose to tell people something that normally we can’t tell them at their faces. Sometimes it’s for fun without having ulterior motive. Often we don’t even realize what part of it could offend somebody.

II. Who is the subject of the joke: There are several kinds of people in this category. Some people prefer to laugh it off, even when they are not much happy about it. They are matured and don’t want to drag the joke far away.
At the same time, there are people who will react immediately or later.

I have been on both side. But there are some questions I want to ask you…

Is it possible to have a good laugh without hurting anyone?

How much offense is “not offense” or can easily be passed on as a joke?

Up to what extent a joke is “a joke”?

Though I’m yet to find the answers but one thing I know for sure. Different people have different level of tolerance. It’s good to have a composed mind or the capacity to handle any situation with a smiling face. Nevertheless if it has gone too far, we shouldn’t restrain ourselves to take a stand. After all it’s about perspective.

I just wrote a post on offensive jokes but there is even game on it!
Wanna play one round of “Cards against humanity” ?🔥

Thanks for reading. Check out my next blog here.