Is there a place for humour?

Original post by Redreynard

I'm wondering whether people today are not as laid-back and humorous as in the past. And I'm wondering, if this is so, is it because young people/students are under more financial pressure, students perhaps under more academic pressure.
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A few examples of how people seem a bit uptight. Offensiveness. If you watch old 70s T.V. people are consistently being funny, and if that means being a bit offensive to get the good joke in, so be it. But no one takes offence. Everyone wants a good laugh. TSR. If you write an amusing thread, not at all offensive, maybe about your pet rabbit trying to get into university or something, even if everyone is having a laugh replying, the mods always seem to cotton on at some point and close things down on account of "trolling". But what is wrong with humour?
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So my 2 questions:-
1. Do you think people have lost their sense of humour?
2. If so, why?

People HAVE lost their sense of humour! Nowadays, people are scared of offending anyone, especially minorities. Everyone seems to take everything so seriously and personally. Just look at Frankie Boyle - he's been in so much trouble for offending people, especially disabled people. I mean, come on! IT'S A JOKE!

Reply 2

OP

Original post by Nerol

People HAVE lost their sense of humour! Nowadays, people are scared of offending anyone, especially minorities. Everyone seems to take everything so seriously and personally. Just look at Frankie Boyle - he's been in so much trouble for offending people, especially disabled people. I mean, come on! IT'S A JOKE!

so do you think the lack of humour is all about politically correct people looking to be offended??
there was a time when oldsters tried to make the world more serious, and youngsters tried to shake it up and have a laugh. i think the young are failing in their duty.

Reply 3

animalnitrate

I find that I have to have a sense of humour in order to deal with my problems.

Reply 4

deltabomber

12

Original post by Redreynard

I'm wondering whether people today are not as laid-back and humorous as in the past. And I'm wondering, if this is so, is it because young people/students are under more financial pressure, students perhaps under more academic pressure.
....
A few examples of how people seem a bit uptight. Offensiveness. If you watch old 70s T.V. people are consistently being funny, and if that means being a bit offensive to get the good joke in, so be it. But no one takes offence. Everyone wants a good laugh. TSR. If you write an amusing thread, not at all offensive, maybe about your pet rabbit trying to get into university or something, even if everyone is having a laugh replying, the mods always seem to cotton on at some point and close things down on account of "trolling". But what is wrong with humour?
....
So my 2 questions:-
1. Do you think people have lost their sense of humour?
2. If so, why?

Not true
The reason we dont have those 70s tv programs is because your only remembering the good bits...there were racist bits which even the actors were uncomfortable with (they admitted it later)
Frankie Boyle maybe funny...but have you ever seen his audiences demographic and thought again about whether his comedy is offensive...
ps i'm assuming your white male and british and have no disabilities

Reply 5

Original post by Redreynard

so do you think the lack of humour is all about politically correct people looking to be offended??
there was a time when oldsters tried to make the world more serious, and youngsters tried to shake it up and have a laugh. i think the young are failing in their duty.

Yeah people are too easily offended nowadays and want an excuse to cause trouble. Young people are being brought up being told its wrong and not PC to make jokes about minorities, and comedians aren't allowed to joke about them on most TV chanels, so fewer people are doing so.

I think everyone needs to chill out. Just because I make a joke about a cripple doesn't mean I don't realise their disability isn't serious, and if I make a joke about someone from another country, it doesn't make me racist.

Reply 6

Original post by deltabomber

Not true
The reason we dont have those 70s tv programs is because your only remembering the good bits...there were racist bits which even the actors were uncomfortable with (they admitted it later)
Frankie Boyle maybe funny...but have you ever seen his audiences demographic and thought again about whether his comedy is offensive...
ps i'm assuming your white male and british and have no disabilities

Frankie Boyle is only seen as offensive because some people have nothing better to do than be offended! He's a comedian, it's obviously a joke. Get over it.

Reply 7

OP

Original post by deltabomber

Not true
The reason we dont have those 70s tv programs is because your only remembering the good bits...there were racist bits which even the actors were uncomfortable with (they admitted it later)
Frankie Boyle maybe funny...but have you ever seen his audiences demographic and thought again about whether his comedy is offensive...
ps i'm assuming your white male and british and have no disabilities

Yeah, but you're proving my point, humour needs cruelty. Yes, a middle aged man treating women like sexual toys and running after them, as Benny Hill did, is cruel ... but also funny. The actors, liberal love-ies didn't like saying the racist things, but everyone else laughed. Or ... well let me let John Lloyd say his piece.
Taken from a newspaper report:-
John Lloyd, creator of the panel show QI, has declared himself relieved to be free of what he calls a regime of “blanket prescriptions [at BBC 1], which reduce everything to a bland vichyssoise” and cites The Two Ronnies as a show that would have been hopelessly hobbled by the prevailing climate. Yet in truth there’s scarcely a decent British comedy series over the past 50 years that would have escaped unscathed. One can only wonder what would have happened had Dick Emery or Benny Hill still been in working order.

Reply 8

OP

Original post by animalnitrate

I find that I have to have a sense of humour in order to deal with my problems.

i'm sad to hear you have problems.
but if you can still see the funny side of things, then, unlike a lot of people today, you are at least in that way blessed.

Reply 9

deltabomber

12

I hold nothing against edgy comedy...for instance i like alot of ricky gervais' stuff, but at least he knows when to draw the line between laughing about peoples reaction to minorities/disabilities and actually laughing at them

Reply 10

My first reaction to anything tragic is to make a joke about it. Gotta laugh at life!

Reply 11

OP