Taking Jokes to Far

I agree with no mileage lost. If a joke is good, it's ok to abuse it a little imo. You ever heard of a running gag?

I don't have this problem, I do suffer from the dreaded foot in mouth disease. I just can't help it either, I think my filter is broken:eusa_doh:

 

I think the extension of the joke should be coupled with how good the friend you're talking to is, laughing with good friends is all good but with strangers I dare not

At most, I always apologize if the joke was percieved badly!

 

As someone who falls in quite neatly with philosophical relativism, my natural response is that a joke's outer perimeter is determined by its context. Like... there are jokes that are just too crude, as in, like, always too crude. I don't really want to say it, but... I've heard jokes like "all [rude word for POC] should be hanged HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA". Like... yeah... that's funny. Ha. Ha. No. And it would be a lot worse if said next to a person of color, and even worse if said next to a person of color who has some personal connection with persecution of POC.

I don't usually go over the top with jokes a lot, but... it does happen sometimes. If someone would be offended I guess I would apologize.

 

As long as it's not racist, homophobic, sexist or insulting someone in some way, then it should be fine, just some good banter tbh

 

The way i deal with it is . . . i don't, i always take my jokes too far. I offend some people but once they know I don't mean what I'm saying they are usually okay with it.

 

My issue with that is that that eliminates the majority of things that are funny to people. People find jokes about death or minorities funny because it's funny to say something bad, especially if it's actually satire and you're laughing at the majority instead. Listen, I'm not racist, homophobic, or sexist, but I've made racist, homophobic and sexist jokes because I know- and usually the people around me know- that I'm none of those things. That's why it's funny. XD Omfg, I remember this chick yelled at me once for saying blonde jokes. My response? Make another blonde joke! ^_^

 

I agree half-way with iiimee; eliminating all such jokes from your comedy arsenal kind of leaves a blank hole that's hard to fill unless you have the wit of a master poet or something. Just like with alcohol, I say that moderation is a good idea. There are times when it's preferable to just chill on the extremely offensive jokes, and other times when it's much safer, like when you're with a friend you're sure won't be offend, or take the jokes seriously. I've spent a lot of time in my life with people who made a lot of racist "jokes" and whatnot. However, I knew all along that they were actual racists. They're all Islamophobes, and two of them are outspoken Nazis. So yeah. "Jokes" often aren't as innocent as they might appear at first glance.

 

(Don't know how to quote) I do agree with iiimee, but so many people get offended nowadays I think it depends who you're friends with. Like I only really joke around with people who I'm friends with, cause that way I know I'm less likely to say something that might offend someone

 

Exactly. It's like any time anybody has an opinion about anything any which way it is going to piss somebody off and same goes with jokes! So why not take it too far ... :badgrin:

But what constitutes as too far, anyway? It varies from person to person, right? And if someone becomes angry at another for trying to be humorous I think that says something about their character.

 

I think, if someone doesn't find something funny, you're just being an obnoxious dickhead by doing it when you're fully aware that they don't appreciate it. If I make a joke and the person in question didn't find it funny, or found it offensive, I'd apologise. I wouldn't continue doing it just to upset them even more - what a pointless waste of time.

It's unrealistic to expect everyone to 'take a joke'. If someone made fun of my sexuality I'd probably laugh, or not just care at all, but I know others aren't the same and might be offended - similar to how some black people might be able to take a joke about their skin colour but a lot wouldn't appreciate it. People are different, and you can't uphold everyone to the same standard.

 

It all just kind of depends on context to me. Like a close friend and I tell a lot of jokes that some people would consider offensive, especially the dirty ones, but we're so comfortable with each other we kind of know each other's limits. With my other more 'innocent' group of friends, I would never dare telling the same kind of jokes as I told my close friend. You have to know your environment and what's appropriate in the given situation, depending on who you're with.

But if you were to go past accepted bounds with jokes, just apologize and keep that in mind for the next time.

 

I couldn't help thinking of this scene from the simpsons when reading the thread title:

[YOUTUBE]6P871I3zcro[/YOUTUBE]

When I feel like I've taken a joke too far, I tend to joke about taking it too far! If it is with my brother, quoting that simpsons scene always works.

 

hmmm i have no idea, i kind of just go silent or change the subject....

this is a common problem for me, being an aspie i dont really pick up when im doing this till its way too late

 

Dang it, now I'm sitting here listening to "it's raining men".

Anyways, me and my bro take jokes way, way beyond what people would consider acceptable. It's to the point where even me thinking about the things we say as jokes makes me feel guilty :lol: With strangers though, I never take it that far. I'm too nice to ever want to offend anyone I didn't know like that.

 

Pretty much everyone at my school sense of humour involves taking things way too far with each other. Most of the time it's fine, because we know we're just kidding. But if things do get taken too far, we just apologise and try to remember for next time

 

No joke is considered too far for me. Any kind of subject can be made into a joke no matter how dark or morbid it may be. No subject should be off limits.

 

I remember this group of guys that I used to hang out with at the club and this one guy in particular was the "joker" of the group who thought he was a comedian of sorts. What began to annoy me was that he got into the habit of telling minority jokes and would always start off by saying to me that the joke he is about to tell is no offense towards me because I was the only minority of the group. Honestly, I did get quite annoyed because his jokes were not targeted towards the Caucasians of the group...just me...and furthermore, the jokes were not funny at all and quite offensive. Therefore, this one particular night while having dinner, this preceded again to tell his jokes and again...he started to tell another racially themed joke. I immediately interrupted him and told him how I did not appreciate him telling his minority jokes because they were very offensive and although he always offered up a "no offense" phrase before telling them..then the way I see it is if you think or believe that the jokes could be offensive towards me then way tell them at all??? I also continued with I found him to be very disrespectful and inconsiderate to say the least and if this is what I have to put up with whenever I'm in the company of this group, then I will not hang out with them anymore.

All of a sudden, many of the patrons of this restaurant stood up and applauded me for standing up to this guy and offered their support. The owner of the restaurant came out to persuade me to not leave as well as offering to pay for my dinner. After all of the hoopla, the joker came over to me to say that he does understand my perspective on the matter and that he apologizes for his behavior.

 

For me, if you don't tell me something's a joke, then I'm most likely not going to know it's a joke. If I get offended and try to tell me ''it was just a joke'' - I'm probably not going to see it that way, as that could be used as a ''get out card'' for being offensive.

 

My sense of humor is pretty dry, so sometimes jokes are seen as me being serious. Ultimately it all depends on context. There are some people that I wouldn't tell some jokes to because it would offend them, or make them feel bad. On the other hand there are people where I'll turn off my filter completely. My goal isn't to hurt anyone's feelings specifically, so I try to be aware of who I'm telling the joke to and whether or not they'd like it.