5 ms·

How many comedians do you know that never make any offensive jokes? Gender, race, handicaps/health etc are very common themes in almost every comedy program I k

by jo909 11y ago

How many comedians do you know that never make any offensive jokes? Gender, race, handicaps/health etc are very common themes in almost every comedy program I know. I won't judge on the quality of specific jokes and where exactly a bad joke ends and a racial slur begins, but in general it is an accepted part of comedy.

DanBC 11y ago
It's fine for people to tell offensive jokes. Is it fine for me to call Roy Chubby Brown lazy and stupid and unfunny because of his bad jokes? Is it fine for me to ask people providing me content to try harder to be funny, rather than just flinging shit and calling it a joke?
- jo909 11y ago
  I completely agree with you, there is lots of comedy that I dislike and that I choose to live without. Still, implying that Amazon is ok with "racial slurs" is not quite the same than saying that Amazon is ok with "bad comedy". I'm pretty sure some of the existing Amazon Prime original productions will fall into my personal "bad comedy" category already.
- msandford 11y ago
  I always thought in HN land you got a certain amount of leeway to complain about how X needed to be better and it was OK. But then at some point -- because we recognize how the world actually works -- if you see that X can be better and nobody else can, the onus is on you to actually do X better and prove it. In the business world this is a startup. In comedy, I guess that means being a comedian. From what I can tell it's about the same as startup-land, there's a power law distribution where a few comedians get really wealthy, a bunch of people get by, and tons of folks fail outright. Given the very long road that folks travel to become widely known and "successful" I'd guess that the jokes they tell are in some way reflective of society's preferences. But hey if you know better than all these folks, have at it!
  - DanBC 11y ago
    Well, okay. Let's change my question to "Is it fine for me to give my money to comedians I find funny, and not to comedians I don't find funny? And to then tell those comedians why I'm chosing not to buy their product?"
    - msandford 11y ago
      Absolutely vote with your wallet! It's one of the great features of capitalism that few disparage. Avail yourself of the opportunity. I get the whole "I want to tell people why I'm not buying their product" mentality and whatnot. I feel the same way a lot of times. But complaining in general isn't going to get you anywhere and even if this HN thread totally blows up, it's not going to sway anyone at Amazon or Clarkson, Hammond or May. It'll literally never be on their radar. So at this point you're complaining for the sake of complaining. Fair enough! I do it all the time too. But you're not really telling them anything, since they'll never see it.
deleted 11y ago
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by jo909 11y ago

DanBC 11y ago

It's fine for people to tell offensive jokes. Is it fine for me to call Roy Chubby Brown lazy and stupid and unfunny because of his bad jokes? Is it fine for me to ask people providing me content to try harder to be funny, rather than just flinging shit and calling it a joke?

jo909 11y ago
I completely agree with you, there is lots of comedy that I dislike and that I choose to live without. Still, implying that Amazon is ok with "racial slurs" is not quite the same than saying that Amazon is ok with "bad comedy". I'm pretty sure some of the existing Amazon Prime original productions will fall into my personal "bad comedy" category already.
msandford 11y ago
I always thought in HN land you got a certain amount of leeway to complain about how X needed to be better and it was OK. But then at some point -- because we recognize how the world actually works -- if you see that X can be better and nobody else can, the onus is on you to actually do X better and prove it. In the business world this is a startup. In comedy, I guess that means being a comedian. From what I can tell it's about the same as startup-land, there's a power law distribution where a few comedians get really wealthy, a bunch of people get by, and tons of folks fail outright. Given the very long road that folks travel to become widely known and "successful" I'd guess that the jokes they tell are in some way reflective of society's preferences. But hey if you know better than all these folks, have at it!
- DanBC 11y ago
  Well, okay. Let's change my question to "Is it fine for me to give my money to comedians I find funny, and not to comedians I don't find funny? And to then tell those comedians why I'm chosing not to buy their product?"
  - msandford 11y ago
    Absolutely vote with your wallet! It's one of the great features of capitalism that few disparage. Avail yourself of the opportunity. I get the whole "I want to tell people why I'm not buying their product" mentality and whatnot. I feel the same way a lot of times. But complaining in general isn't going to get you anywhere and even if this HN thread totally blows up, it's not going to sway anyone at Amazon or Clarkson, Hammond or May. It'll literally never be on their radar. So at this point you're complaining for the sake of complaining. Fair enough! I do it all the time too. But you're not really telling them anything, since they'll never see it.

deleted 11y ago

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