The GOP is back

[Rick-o]

$tevie wrote:
[quote=billb]
How about a couple F-bombs for levity and put the thread even further in the gutter ?

Sorry I disturbed your laff fest. I forgot how hysterically funny death is.

Maybe everyone didn't die, but that so-called joke was like making a joke about 9/11. She is a creep.
Agreed. That apology was anything but! I believe she is much more than a creep. Team players indeed.

[swampy]

$tevie..."I hope someone makes jokes when someone in your family dies, I hope they laugh their asses off."

So very thoughtful of you. Your selective political correctness is so charming. I've found that most people who are politically correct don't have much of a sense of humor. They take things oh so seriously. They offend easily.

The emailed "joke" is funny because it points out the irony of the two situations when juxtaposed.

Ever heard of Jeff Dunham? Achmed the Dead Terrorist? Funny stuff. Who would ever have thought someone could make jokes about suicide bombers? It takes a brilliant mind to do so and a open mind to find it funny.

Ever heard of Black (or dark) Humor? "Black humor, in literature, drama, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. Ordinary characters or situations are usually exaggerated far beyond the limits of normal satire or irony. Black humor uses devices often associated with tragedy and is sometimes equated with tragic farce. For example, Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1963) is a terrifying comic treatment of the circumstances surrounding the dropping of an atom bomb, while Jules Feiffer's comedy Little Murders (1965) is a delineation of the horrors of modern urban life, focusing particularly on random assassinations. The novels of such writers as Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth contain elements of black humor."

[deckeda]

Context is key.

That joke, delivered by a black comedian, might be considered funny by his or her stand-up audience.

That joke, sent in an email by a white Republican official in a county with some history of tension ...

Hillsborough has been a magnet for racially charged controversies in the Republican Party in recent months. Former county chairman David Storck was roundly criticized for forwarding an e-mail lamenting the many blacks voting early in the presidential election, and former state party finance chairman Al Austin apologized for forwarding an e-mail joke referring to the assassination of Obama.

... probably wouldn't be seen as funny, ya think?

You have a choice. Either lament what you may view as a double-standard that only permits humor to be expressed in limited circumstances or recognize that some people view it as racist.

The answer tends to lie in the margins. Very few racists will walk around wearing a sign claiming they are racist. They can't be counted on to send emails stating, "I am a racist." The nature of the beast takes many forms, usually subtle ones that would easily pass for humor, concern etc. at other times.

[Black]

swampy wrote:
$tevie..."I hope someone makes jokes when someone in your family dies, I hope they laugh their asses off."

So very thoughtful of you. Your selective political correctness is so charming. I've found that most people who are politically correct don't have much of a sense of humor. They take things oh so seriously. They offend easily.

The emailed "joke" is funny because it points out the irony of the two situations when juxtaposed.

Ever heard of Jeff Dunham? Achmed the Dead Terrorist? Funny stuff. Who would ever have thought someone could make jokes about suicide bombers? It takes a brilliant mind to do so and a open mind to find it funny.

Funny only to those who hate arabs enough to happily pie on to stereotyping that ruins american lives. To your credit you have never pretended to harbor anything but hatred for arab men.

Ever heard of Black (or dark) Humor? "Black humor, in literature, drama, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. Ordinary characters or situations are usually exaggerated far beyond the limits of normal satire or irony. Black humor uses devices often associated with tragedy and is sometimes equated with tragic farce. For example, Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1963) is a terrifying comic treatment of the circumstances surrounding the dropping of an atom bomb, while Jules Feiffer's comedy Little Murders (1965) is a delineation of the horrors of modern urban life, focusing particularly on random assassinations. The novels of such writers as Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth contain elements of black humor."

I think we all understand and apreciate black humor and understand how the joke superficially fits that mold. The reason it is offensive is that it is based on unfair premises, assumptions, and bias (the basic one being that backs are ignorant) and the recipient would need to buy into to these to find any humor in it. The sender of the joke obviously holds these racist views to see humor, and expect others to receive it the same way. It's not satire, it's not parody, it's not irony-- it's "black people are so stupid that _____" with a little lipstick on it.

[Surfrider]

"Black humor" and the "humor" portrayed in that email, are two completely different things. One is funny, the email was racist.

[Black]

FWIW I've looked at some of the puppet guy's other stuff on youtube and don't find any of that funny either.

[$tevie]

swampy wrote: So very thoughtful of you. Your selective political correctness is so charming.

What political correctness? Have I mentioned race at all?

I am talking about the deaths of people. Why don't you get that? I am talking about a tragedy. What is wrong with you?

[Black]

Political correctness-- 2 words for "I have not the slightest interest in understanding any minority experience."

[Lux Interior]

NeverMind wrote:
what are you trying to say Dakota?

I think Dakota was trying to say that black people all know how to steal cars, therefore they should have stolen the school buses and left town.

[swampy]

$tevie wrote:
[quote=swampy]So very thoughtful of you. Your selective political correctness is so charming.

What political correctness? Have I mentioned race at all?

I am talking about the deaths of people. Why don't you get that? I am talking about a tragedy. What is wrong with you?
The tragedy of Katrina is that more could have been done and wasn't. You had a mayor of a city 13 feet below sea level, on the edge of huge lake with ancient levies, facing a category 5 hurricane, with 4 days notice. You had a state with a flawed Emergency Plan and a governor who refused to call up the national guard to help evacuate people. You didn't expect a lot of people to die?

Black, white, brown, yellow, it doesn't matter. Race was not the issue. Incompetence was the issue and that p*sses me off. People that expect the government to take care of them and don't heed warnings p*sses me off. I'm sorry people died, but 1 ) I wasn't surprised and 2 ) I'm angry because it didn't have to happen to them.