political correctness has become a part of everyone's life in the last two decades. Everyone now needs to be very careful not to offend anyone by anything they say or do, and it becomes a real problem for people who make their living in the very subjective comedy industry. Everything is fair game for a joke? Is it ever too early to make light of a serious event? Is it therapeutic to laugh at things that traumatize people the most?
The debate is fierce among actors and peaked at the Comedy Edinburgh Festival which ended August 31 For example, a comedian received a scathing report for a show that the examiner considered offensive in almost every way. The actor proudly shared the magazine on after receiving exactly the reaction he wanted from the press. Immediately comedians from around the world jumped into the expression of very strong and different opinions. About half were in support of the actor, accepting that make a joke about something serious does not trivialize or ridicule him, it does not mean that the actor supports or tolerates, it simply means that the actor found something funny in something serious and can make people laugh with her. Some made jokes about the Holocaust and 9/11 and said they believe comedians can joke about these things without suggesting that they are not serious or traumatic for the people who were affected by them. These are of course historical events and, as we all know, time is a great healer. I do not think many people would resist a joke about the Titanic, for example.
My good friend Jon Atherton, an Australian actor who lives in Malaysia fine, muffled a crowd here in Jakarta just after 9/11, saying with tears in her eyes, "I think it is wrong to making jokes about what happened on 9 / 11. Many people died that day and I lost a good friend. I remember I called him the night before because I had a feeling unwell. I said Mohammed, do not fly this plane. "
But racism and sexism and other forms of prejudice and intolerance are not the same . Our differences never fade in the past. Can we make jokes about racism and sexism without being warned or fanatic? And are forms of prejudice OK while others are not?
On , in the wake of the history of the dentist who shot the famous lion, someone made a parody and posted a picture of a smiling hunter with a rifle sitting on the back of a guy ginger he had allegedly just shot and pulling her head by the hair to show his face. The accompanying text says that "animal" had spent 10 dollars to kill the innocent and endangered species. Very funny everyone agreed; but what the reaction would have been if the thieves had used a gay man or a black woman instead of a ginger guy? The joke was an example of "gingerism"? Was it offensive or just funny? If it was funny, that is because most people laugh ginger with everyone?
If blacks were laughing at racist jokes, he would stop being racist jokes? People are offended by black racist jokes, or is it other people offended on their behalf? What bald jokes and old people jokes? Are they OK because baldness and age are not races, religions, genders and sexual preferences? If gingerism, baldism and oldism are OK, why are not the other "isms"? I am very sure that many people ginger, bald and elderly were deeply upset for centuries by jokes at their expense, but nobody seems to care. The fact is that most jokes are at someone's expense. Comedians these days usually make them at their own expense or at the expense of an imaginary character.
Black English comedian Dane Baptiste said. "My skin is the largest organ of my body, despite what stereotypes would lead you to believe" If anyone else said that joke about Dane, is it racist?
and finally, if a ginger becomes bald at 70, is it still ginger and if so, should we laugh at him to be ginger, bald or old?