Ok one hand, yeah you shouldn’t try to hurt individual people for fun.
On the other hand, everything must be up for ridicule, it is the snarky sibling of valid criticism. Without it the person, or ideology, or belief system, etc. Is given an enormous amount of power over everyone.
That is not compatible with a democracy, everyone and everything must be able to bear ridicule and criticism or it has no place in it.
This reminds me about the time I went to church with an ex and her parents. When it was time to get up for communion, she asked me if it even meant anything to me. I whispered back “well I didn’t have breakfast”. She was ex- about a week later
George Carlin, who I think is still widely regarded as one of the greats, had a “rape can be funny” bit that I doubt would fly today because a whole lot of us have a better understanding of how rape jokes harm victims. Doing harm to such a group is, or at least should, never the goal of a quality comedian. That’s why they’re not generally made by comedians except the “you just can’t take a joke” type.
You can absolutely criticize without doing harm to open wounds. There’s space between not being allowed to criticize and not being allowed to joke.
Maybe you need something like the more power a group has the more they need to be able to bear being the target of joking. That’s why a white, Christian, American man is a far cleaner target.
Ok one hand, yeah you shouldn’t try to hurt individual people for fun.
On the other hand, everything must be up for ridicule, it is the snarky sibling of valid criticism. Without it the person, or ideology, or belief system, etc. Is given an enormous amount of power over everyone.
That is not compatible with a democracy, everyone and everything must be able to bear ridicule and criticism or it has no place in it.
This reminds me about the time I went to church with an ex and her parents. When it was time to get up for communion, she asked me if it even meant anything to me. I whispered back “well I didn’t have breakfast”. She was ex- about a week later
Damn, that’s a pretty valid point.
This lacks a lot of nuance that is needed.
George Carlin, who I think is still widely regarded as one of the greats, had a “rape can be funny” bit that I doubt would fly today because a whole lot of us have a better understanding of how rape jokes harm victims. Doing harm to such a group is, or at least should, never the goal of a quality comedian. That’s why they’re not generally made by comedians except the “you just can’t take a joke” type.
You can absolutely criticize without doing harm to open wounds. There’s space between not being allowed to criticize and not being allowed to joke.
Maybe you need something like the more power a group has the more they need to be able to bear being the target of joking. That’s why a white, Christian, American man is a far cleaner target.