No problem with any of this, and I don't want to drag this argument into tedium, so I'll just state my case and leave it (I can't afford to alienate any more posters on here, anyway).Vidor wrote:I disapprove of the whole mindset that takes three-year old jokes as an opportunity for public shaming. And the comparison between politicians who make laws that influence people's lives and comedians who tell jokes is a poor one. And while I don't find the aforementioned three-year-old jokes to be funny, humor usually has an element of meanness behind it somewhere, which was Oswalt's point. If no one can ever tell any jokes that might make someone somewhere mad, then we have a problem.
I think his "jokes" were so awful that they don't qualify as such. "Haha fat women" just isn't funny - and if the "meanness" in your humour is directed at a group that already gets [expletive] all the time, you might want to consider different targets for your humour.
There's a difference in scale but no difference in principle between using old jokes to talk about a comedian's attitudes, and using old clips to mock how politicians flip-flop on issues. You mention above "three years ago", again, as if the age of the jokes is vital to whether you're annoyed by them or not; so what's the statute of limitations on politicians contradicting themselves? It's a sizeable portion of the show that Noah is taking over, which is why I think it's worthwhile to at least take into account.
Saying "If no one can ever tell any jokes that might make someone somewhere mad, then we have a problem" is a complete straw man. No-one but the worst troll-idiots are suggesting that all jokes that make people mad be banned, and we can ignore them. This is the vast majority of people who are saying "it's pretty sad that the guy who's taking over the great bastion of 'liberal' comedy has such [expletive] attitudes to groups which already have a tough time of it".
If the defence is "they're just jokes", and Noah doesn't think that all fat women are disgusting, or beating women is funny, or that Jews are evil, then I think it's fair to wonder about why he made them. People ultimately ought to be responsible for the things they do or say. Which is why I think Oswalt's inserting himself into a story that's absolutely nothing to do with him is so ridiculous - using a "butterfly / butter fly" joke, as if that's the same as "Originally when men proposed they went down on one knee so if the woman said no they were in the perfect uppercut position" is stupid. If Oswalt thinks anything is fair game at any time, I look forward to him doing an evening at the Apollo and filling his set with n-word jokes.
I've found the easiest way to avoid being thought of as a misogynist or anti-Semitic, is to not make misogynist or anti-Semitic jokes.
