The Limits of Joking

[tkr4lf]

How do you know your sister is on her period?

- Your dad's cock tastes like blood.

I don't see why there should be limits. You can always walk out the door, discuss it or punch the guy if it went too far.

I agree, though. There shouldn't be any limits. As Carlin said... "I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately." If your feelings get hurt, well, deal with it. Or don't. I suspect it doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things.



Also, Daniel Tosh is hilarious. His show may not be the best, but his stand up is pure gold.

[Lootifer]

he was just trying to get attention...

There. You've nailed 99% percent of comedy as a profession, xeno.
Ricky Gervais is somewhat unique though in the way that he seems to not care about the huge demographic that is actually driven away from him as a comic as the result of questionable material. When this happens I chalk it off to a comic's ego being bigger than his professional common sense. He also happens to be one of my favorites but he would be higher up the list if he kept some of his material to himself since while it doesn't necessarily offend me personally it no doubt makes a lot of people feel badly when they hear it.
Evidently there are no limits to comedy just as long as the comedian can maintain a jestful demeanor and the audience is sufficiently numb enough to not realize that the next joke could very well be offensive to their personal sensibilities.
Using questionable material is a numbers game it seems and the people who are turned off in the process are simply acceptable losses to the comic in his/her pursuit of success. Either that or the comic is recklessly sharing his/her personal idea of funny at the expense of others. It's a very selfish attitude any way you slice it. Just remember, its all fun and games until you get hurt.

Jonsey has already said it better than I can, but nonetheless...

The difference between a good comedian and a bad is not the level of their grotesquness, but their intent: If you genuinely believe that 99% of comedians are just there to get attention then you have simply seen 99 bad comedians and one good one.

Good comedians (including Ricky) intended/try to make people laugh. Granted Ricky only cares about making a certain portion of the population laugh.

In fact I like a comedian all the more when they personally offend me; it means that they clearly understand their audience (within reason of course - the afrementioned coon joke in a a bar in [insert predominantly black community here] is not what im talking about).