Should race and religion be left out of comedy...?

Question

...or is comedy the last totally free way to express yourself?

from telling blonde jokes with friends, hearing racial slurs in comedy acts, or reading Muslim religious parodies in cartoons. What do you think?

Kramer's video
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QgmCBKPHnSY

Answer 1

Absolutely NOT. True comedy (at least to me) is the measuring stick of our culture's perspective and tolerance. I have utmost respect for comedians who push the boundaries of people's understanding; its the only way our culture can grow. The problem with Michael Richard's act wasn't the content, it was because it sounded like he was behaving out of real intolerance. All the great comedy icons pushed the boundaries with their acts, but it was done for the purpose to make people laugh at themselves. To be fair, Mr. Richards probably was offended by those men and their lack of respect, and made a human mistake with his language in the heat of the moment. Which doesn't excuse him of apologizing, but there you go.

Answer 2

I think that if you can't laugh at yourself then there is something wrong with you to begin with. Everything goes in comedy. That is why it's so funny. You can't make fun of one thing and not the other. Most comedians go by life experience and unfortunately those are the key things that influences us. So, in some way we are getting life lessons that are funny. Thank you.

Answer 3

Comedy is a way that we reveal and explore what everyone thinks about but is afraid to say. There should be no topic that can't be included. It just has to be funny (not simply shocking or insulting).
After Kennedy's assasination, for instance, Lenny Bruce did a bit called "Hauling ***, to save ***" about Jackie Kennedy jumping out of the car. Of course everyone was outraged, but it broke the ice a bit in America's conciousness and people started to think "Yeah, we'll get over this".
Richard Pryor broke many barriers with his racial humor and made people think about what they believed and what was really true.

Answer 4

there's a difference between being a "bigot", and surely discriminating. you're confusing the two. Discrimination is taking an act, or failing to take an act, in accordance with a individual's secure team (age, race, gender, and so forth), that reasons a tangible harm to that individual. What tangible harm is being suffered via McCain and/or Palin? Are bigoted comments being made? specific, yet it particularly is on the two facets. McCain is "previous" and Palin is "purely a woman" and Obama is "black" and a "muslim" or a "black-liberationist". those are ignorant comments to make specific, yet lean extra in direction of slander than discrimination. whilst McCain is denied television time because of the fact he's merely too previous, it particularly is discrimination, because of the fact he has suffered a harm. there is not any discrimination going on.

Answer 5

Comedy is a personal opinion, much like family dynamics. You can not make fun of me until i have first found it to be funny and share that with the comedy club . and it is most healthy in use when one on one, it is a healing tool for the most part, and loosens up those hard thoughts, the mind does enjoy humor from time to time.and it does not take offense.

Answer 6

To the guy that said blacks are over sensitive not true. I seen other comedians, white and black, talk about black people and laugh and it was funny.

This was a guy who got mad at some people and the only come back he could think of was ****@r. Not cool. Now tell when you've seen Chris Rock get mad and some of his white customers and start calling them crack@rs. Hasn't he uses the term as part of his joke, not as part a mean spirited comeback at hecklers.

Answer 7

There are ways to do it without being offensive. Don Rickles made a career out of it but he never came across as malicious. That wasn't the case with Richards. He came across in the video as a nasty tempered a88hole.

Answer 8

Racial jokes should not issolate 1 or two races. If you make jokes about race, go after all races.

All religion cause problems. Again, if you go after one, go after all. Don't issolate 1 or 2 or people will get hurt

Answer 9

Hell no, that would really limit the material, the problem here as some have stated before is Kramer didnt do it for comedic value, he did it cause he lost his freaking mind!

Answer 10

its cool, people can make jokes about my religious beliefs and race all they want. I probally know more jokes about my race than they do. I think of it as just humor. I know there are people who are really racial, but for the most part people just do it for fun, nothing serious.