# When a joke is not funny?



## Moneytoo (Mar 26, 2014)

So, I'm reading this book, The Slip (by Mark Sampson). In the beginning, the poor guy makes two comments during televised interview which many find offensive, so within a week his life starts falling apart. I'm two-thirds through (mostly reading it on the bus), and it looks like he's delusional, thinking that everyone is upset about the first comment, when it was actually the second - will see 

It's set in Toronto, and I thought it's hugely exaggerated and such reaction couldn't have happened in real life. But two recent examples proved me wrong. First there was Bill Maher with the n-word. And now Uber director who thinks women talk too much.

Personally, I thought both were just funny ad-libs, and people must be taking themselves way too seriously if they get offended by something like this. I watched Maher's follow up episode with apologies, and can kinda see the other side's point of view. But being a woman (quite talkative at times lol), I'm definitely not offended by the second one. 

Just curious what others think, and hopefully any examples of jokes that you personally found offensive - and why?


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

I don't know about TV, but in regular life, I think audience makes all the difference. The workplace is totally different than a close group of friends. With the close friends, anything goes. At the workplace, inappropriate or controversial jokes are absolutely not appropriate.

The Uber director is in a workplace -- he's the leader of a company. Even if he's joking, it's absolutely not appropriate to make any jokes at the expense of women or any other group. Anyone with common sense knows that. Which means that a slip such as David Bonderman's indicates that either he lacks common sense or lacks self control.

Both are unacceptable traits for someone in his job role. That's why he left (or was asked to leave and resigned to save face).

If you think the board overreacted to David Bonderman -- as you implied in your post -- then you also might not understand what's appropriate for the workplace.


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## Koogie (Dec 15, 2014)

There are lots of politically correct thugs in society now that can't take a joke. They don't like free speech, especially that which disagrees with their orthodoxy. They've elevated the clarion call of "offense" to sainthood.

But be careful. There are lots of them on this site. Some are even moderators.


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## lagagnon (Apr 13, 2017)

I'm of the opinion that we (especially Canadians) are becoming a bit too thin-skinned. We don't know how to take a joke, laugh off something perhaps somewhat inappropriate and have taken political correctness to obscene levels of stupidity. It's almost as if we have not learned to play properly with other children in the sandbox of life. Some people take personal offense at some of the most innocuous comments, or try real hard to find someone's offhand remarks as offensive in even the slightest amount. It reeks of not really having their own life, but attempting to live vicariously through the comments of others.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Koogie said:


> But be careful. There are lots of them on this site. Some are even moderators.


Audience and environment is everything.

This particular forum has rules. They are here. This was decided by the owners of the web site. It's a privately owned web site... it's not the street. The owners get to call the shots, because this is their turf.

Other places don't have rules. You can say what you want among your family and close friends.

There are parts of the internet you can say anything you want. You can go to ZeroHedge or Reddit and post the most obscene and objectionable content you want.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

By the way, it irritates me that my workplace (my office) is so politically correct. It's overly politically correct, and they're nuts about it.

But as with this forum, it's someone else's turf. The company is owned by the founder and owners, and they determine the rules. It's my choice whether to work there and follow their rules.

Frankly, Portland is excessively politically correct, way more so than Toronto or anywhere else in Canada I've been. So I sympathize with some of the points being raised here.


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## olivaw (Nov 21, 2010)

Bondsman made a single inappropriate joke. His email apology should have been enough. There was no pattern of sexist comment of the sort that made people uncomfortable so the resignation was unnecessary. 

It has very little to do with this forum. The moderators don't ask people to resign their jobs over over inappropriate forum posts.


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## Moneytoo (Mar 26, 2014)

james4beach said:


> If you think the board overreacted to David Bonderman -- as you implied in your post -- then you also might not understand what's appropriate for the workplace.


To continue from the Trump thread - yes, I work in tech/engineering (was a developer for many years, then a QA, now finally made it into Dev Management) As for women, I think I was more offended when the new owners hosted a "Special Meeting for Women in Technology" after our company was acquired. The speaker was a slightly brown female executive from their side, who honestly shared how she was peeved when she realized that she ticked off two boxes when promoted: female and PoC. I had to ask what PoC was (only knew it as a "Person of Contact" - turned out to be "Person of Colour") 

As for what's not appropriate for the workspace... Guess I was lucky. My first boss here (at this company) was a Canadian woman, older than me, with a similar sense of humour (that some more timid co-workers found crude) We were doing this project for the big US company, and I was her "right hand", and she tolerated - and what even seemed like encouraged - my "insubordination". Yet couldn't get me promoted because our upper management wasn't happy with my outspokenness. So there were 4 or 5 PMs changed within less than two years (all men - who just couldn't keep up and take the stress), the latest one's name was Christian. We were hosting a catered lunch for 4 visiting customer executives (all male) when she asked me to call, "what's his name"... 

Me: "Oh his name is too religious for you to say, huh?" 
Her: "How do you know I'm not religious?" 
Me, without missing a beat: "Sorry I didn't know you were a Satan's Worshiper!"

A moment of silence, she smirked - and the American visitors just burst out laughing. Later one of them came to me and said that it was hilarious - and he envies our relationship... But yeah, I had to tone it down significantly since then


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## epcltd (Jun 15, 2017)

"(especially Canadians) are becoming a bit too thin-skinned." - I don't think Canada is on its own here. In the UK people have become way too sensitive and are almost looking to catch you out every time you open your mouth


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

Are people desperately waiting to let their inner crude self loose ? If not, why the compelling need to offend people as a joke ?

And why the desire to have such offensive actions sanctioned by society or the government ?

If anyone wants to be a boorish idiot.....they don't need my permission to do so. Donald Trump never asks for it.


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## 5Lgreenback (Mar 21, 2015)

In our victimhood culture, people are desperately looking for reasons to be offended, to let loose their fake outrage it seems. To me it appears as if this feeds their narcissistic and morally superior beliefs. 

No "need" or aim to offend anyone is needed, these victims are actively searching for ways (and creating new ways weekly) to be offended.


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## OptsyEagle (Nov 29, 2009)

The problem one has is on both sides. Sometimes some people just cannot take a joke, is the one side. The other side is that some people use humour to make their inappropriate point. My guess, with the UBER exec. is that he really did not want women on the board and made a joke because he knew that he could not say what he really felt. It did not make it any less wrong. That being said, another person, could have said the very same thing, and I would agree it was definitely a joke. It is all within the context of the person saying it, the people in the room and what is going on at the time. That determines what is a joke...not the words themselves.

For example. You see black comedians making racial jokes about the black community all the time. Many are quite funny and I suspect most racial groups find it quite humerous and understand it for what it is, humour. If I, with all my caucasian good looks, stood up on that stage, using the exact same material, it would not be as well received...and it shouldn't be.

It is all about context. You need to be aware of who you are, where you are, who you are with and what is going on and when you have analyzed all that...you should probably keep your jokes for your buddies, who have decided to overlook your unique personality a long time ago.


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## stantistic (Sep 19, 2015)

I liked the cartoon in the opening post. When I tried a simple "select, copy, paste" in order to get a stand-alone cartoon, I was unable to do so. Is there a simple way to do that? I use Windows 7 ad IE 11.

Thanks


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## zylon (Oct 27, 2010)

^^


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## zylon (Oct 27, 2010)

> When a joke is not funny?












Source: https://www.facebook.com/albertafre...991965122071/2019658678255397/?type=3&theater


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## mbrown (Jun 24, 2017)

A joke doesn't need to be offensive or unoffensive to be not funny


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## jargey3000 (Jan 25, 2011)

"Now, you take my wife...................PLEASE!!!"


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## Userkare (Nov 17, 2014)

jargey3000 said:


> "Now, you take my wife...................PLEASE!!!"


I've been married for 35 years, and I'm still in love with the same wonderful woman...
If my wife ever finds out, she'll kill me!

After all the bru-ha-ha over Kathi Griffin with the severed Trump head, and the Shakespeare Julius Caesar play with a Trump-like Caesar being stabbed at the Forum - Johnny Depp tried to make a joke about how silly it was that anybody would take this so seriously. He said "When was the last time an actor assassinated a President?". That went over like a lead balloon, now he's the focus of Secret Service scrutiny. Jeez folks, I thought it was funny, for the irony.


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## olivaw (Nov 21, 2010)

Depp knew what he was doing. He said it was going to be in the press and would be horrible.


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## jargey3000 (Jan 25, 2011)

Userkare said:


> I've been married for 35 years, and I'm still in love with the same wonderful woman...
> If my wife ever finds out, she'll kill me!
> 
> .


After 40 years, da wife & I have found the secret to a happy marriage: A quiet, romantic dinner out, once a week; 
she goes Tuesdays, I go Thursdays.


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## Mukhang pera (Feb 26, 2016)

My father gave me a good example of when a joke is not funny. He told a story about a maximum security prison, where many of the inmates have been there awhile - lifers. They would tell jokes but, after awhile everyone knew all of the jokes and could recite them all quite easily. So it came to pass that they all decided it was a somewhat wasted effort to repeat jokes over and over in full, when everyone knew what was coming. To streamline things, they decided to assign a number to each of their old favourites.

The new system worked really well. If a prisoner wanted to give his fellows a laugh, all he to do was call out, for example - Number 78! Everyone would bust out laughing. Another guy would yell out - Number 18! Again, lots of laughter.

So, when a new guy came to live on the cell block, he caught on to how things were done. To join in the fun, one day he called out - Number 34! Nothing. Silence. No one laughed. So he asked his senior cellmate, how come no one laughed at my joke? The old hand replied; “Well son, it’s all in the way you tell the joke.”


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

Political correctness is fascism pretending to be manners - George Carlin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkhUivqzWv0&t=415s


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

Re: Johnny Depp, Madonna, Kathy Griffin etc etc. Trump's staff could shut them up at once if their response was, 'another show biz has been out for some free publicity'.


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## Mukhang pera (Feb 26, 2016)

Rusty O'Toole said:


> Political correctness is fascism pretending to be manners - George Carlin
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkhUivqzWv0&t=415s


Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rapidly promoted by mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of excrement by the clean end.


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## zylon (Oct 27, 2010)

*YES ! - driverless motorcycle*


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## testone (Oct 17, 2017)

Jokes aren't funny when they're told by an American comedian


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## Spidey (May 11, 2009)

I find the lowest type of humor to be the bullying type comedy by insulting people on their appearance or physical attributes. Unfortunately, it appears to be very in vogue at the moment even at the highest levels.


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## cablex (Nov 6, 2017)

The status quo for jokes these days are appalling...


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