Are Offensive Jokes More Permissible If They’re Funny?

One response to “Are Offensive Jokes More Permissible If They’re Funny?”

1. Jan Narveson | April 19, 2016 at 10:15 pm | Reply

   The author of the comment writes as if it doesn’t matter who the audience is. I would have thought that audience is the main thing: when we tell jokes, we should know our audience well enough that we know we won’t offend anyone. Almost all of the really funny, and quite prima face deprecating, jokes about Jews I have ever heard were told me by Jewish friends, for example; in my childhood, jokes about various kinds of scandinavians were rife – I grew up in a largely Scandinavian-ancestry community. If we don’t know our audience, offensive jokes should just be a no-no. Tellers of jokes are out to amuse, not to offend. There are audiences which wouldn’t be offended by anything; others that will be offended by practically everything; and, of course, audiences devoid of a sense of humour. Sensible and sensitive people will make a plausible judgement about which kind they speak to when they wax humourous. Nuff said!

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