shepaints wrote:"Why no sexist, opportunist jokes? Funny is funny and clever is clever when nobody gets hurt."
Times and sensitivities change, what was funny
fifty years ago is not necessarily funny today.
Yep - and a lot of the funniness was always based on noxious stereotyping - like Stepan Fetchit (spelling?) - the dumb immigrant, the stereotypical Japanese person - like Mickey Rooney in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and so on - (in Oz, at one time, the literature is full of really nasty humour against the dumb English person just arrived "new chums" - based, no doubt, on Oz's 'orrid cultural cringe).
It is amazing how horrid a lot of stereotype humour looks today.
Hey - if it is tit for tat - which a lot of the male/female stuff is - and conscious - go for it - same with cultural stuff - cultural difference humour can be hilarious - but where negative assumptions about a group are so built into the culture that people just accept them as reality - like the portrayal of black people in American cinema until relatively recently - or the whole range of words referring to the feminine which are automatically assumed to be negative - I think these things form and reflect our consciousness - and are important to be challenged.
And here I bow out - this thread seems to be going nowhere and causing bad feelings, as it sails round and round, with people I like.
But I ain't gonna pretend I don't think something is serious when I do.
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, good night.
Don't forget to put the dog out.
)
