Do you believe there are limits in comedy?

Of course there are limits. Just watch a clip of Kramer from Seinfeld (Michael Richards) going off during a nightclub performance where he continually rants at a heckler and goes so far as to call him nigger this and nigger that.
And just check out Don Rickles form of humor. He made a living at ridiculing everyone. But he wasn’t funny to me.

So yes, there are limits and also not everyone is going to love every comic.

If you don’t like a comic, turn the channel or just walk out.

Yes, there are limits. I don’t think going around and ridicute people is funny.

But then again, what is funny for ones may not be funny for others. That’s why people defend the comedians you find offensive. It all comes down to taste.

The good news is, there are a variety of different types of comics, each using a different style of comedy. Find one that works for you, and ignore the others.

No.

No.
Satire should have zero boundaries, any offence taken is both subjective & inconsistent.

There are limits, but they’re different for everyone, and the comedian is like a cook in a restaurant. He makes his living by keeping the place full with his “cooking”. If he consistently turns out a tasteless product, he won’t be in business long. Just as with cooks, comics specialize in techniques and spices suited to a variety tastes. There are plenty of restaurants around that I deliberately avoid, and yet they persist. So be it.

Yes, but it’s a different limit depending on personal upbringing, belief and taste.

The only limits are personal limits. Not all comedians will appeal to all people. I personally enjoy comedians that make fun of everyone (Dave Chapelle, Katt Williams, Louis CK, Daniel Tosh) and I find the “how ‘bout that airline food?” type of safe comedy incredibly corny and boring. To each his own; all types of comedy have a place.

While they are free to do so, I could do without comedians who seek to appeal to society’s lowest common denominator with vulgarities and inflammatory humor.

No.

You’re kind of getting to “what is humor?”

Personally, a joke that points out how silly some custom is even to the people who follow it is funny, but holding a long cherished custom to ridicule is not. For instance: making fun out of everyone going to the beach to barbecue and get drunk on Memorial Day would be funny; making a joke from a solemn remembrance ceremony at a cemetery on Memorial Day would be crossing the line.

And, rape jokes are crossing the line.

It would be crossing the line for me to do Chris Rock’s routine because I’m not black. I can’t explain why, it’s just an unwritten rule that you can only make fun of other races to a certain extent without pissing people off.

Prudes offend me.

I am not a fan of dead baby jokes and such and feel there is definitely a line in comedy that no longer is funny and is gratuitous by the lack of originality and sense of real humor by the comedian.

^ So if I find something funny that you do not what precisely is wrong with me?

NO. Fuck any thin-skinned crybabies who literally don’t know what the definition of a “joke” is! And fuck anyone who wants to tread on other people’s freedom of speech because they feel like they’re “morally superior” to anyone who doesn’t think like them!

If they’re not joking, then yeah, it’s kind of rude. Not that they don’t have the right to be an asshole. But too many people nowadays don’t even have enough of a sense of humor to recognize when someone is joking around or not! It’s ironic to me when someone who is way too serious tries to dissect comedy.

@zenvelo
Rape jokes are funny to me! As is dead baby/children jokes. Hell, that’s half of what any typical episode of Family Guy is. Rape, however, as in real life rape, is not! Maybe because I can actually separate fiction and hypotheticals from reality and don’t see the two as one in the same. But that’s just me.

No limits.

@ucme Word up. There are obviously some types of humor that I find funnier than others, different tastes. But comedy should be free to be what it wants.

In fact I think that controversy, tabooed subjects and the like often benefit from humor.

@Symbeline Indeedy do.
Think of the humble court jester in medieval times, charged with the unenviable task of making the savage royals laugh. Failure brought the executioner’s axe thundering down on their sorry necks…that’s what I call pressure.

…LOL.

Yeah…they had to be careful not to offend the royals, otherwise their performance would be cut short. Maybe that’s how royalty got ahead in life…

I think I’m killing it here…XD

No.

@Symbeline Haha, Jester/Royal Court – Me/Fluther…a fair analogy :D

To begin with, I would like to make clear that I asked this question in order to discuss with the other members of Fluther. That means that I want everyone to express their opinion freely. Every opinion is accepted as long as you explain your thesis. @MarvinPowell I respect your opinion about humor but that doesn’t mean that you should demand everyone to agree with you. It is a common fact that humor and its limits differ in every country and civilization. This is why I thought that as an interesting issue to discuss. My purpose and everyone’s participating in this conversation (I guess) is not to offend somebody who is opposed to my point of view but instead I would like us to exchange our ideas.
P.S. You haven’t met me in person to reach to the conclusion that I have no sence of humor.

@ucme Heh yeah…now we should ask a Fluther question; if Fluther was a medieval setting, what would we all have as roles? You’re definitely the jester. I can be a dragon. Lol.

Hey, go for it, just drop me a nod in the details :)

After hearing Bob Saget’s take on The Aristocrats, I’d say the only real limits are whether people find it funny. And by “people”, I don’t mean that they must please everybody, only enough people to make a living. Personally, I find Seinfeld to be less funny than watching paint dry, but enough people laugh at him to earn Jerry the title “comedian”.

“What’s the deal with food on an airplane?”

It has…uh…snakes and shit?

@dina_didi
I wasn’t talking or referring to you personally. Sorry if you felt that way. And I don’t expect people“need” to agree with me. I just feel strongly about others trying to censor people. I personally feel no one is entitled to censor anyone under a “free” country.

But again. I wasn’t talking about you. I meant in general, I hate others who try to censor people, especially when it comes to comedy.

@MarvinPowell censoring people is something I hate too. What bothers me is where the comedy stops and the ridicule begins. It is part of the game but we can’t push someone over and over again being mean because then we are also depriving some of the other people’s rights. Everybody has the right to talk freely but everybody has also the right to protect himself from being mocked.
P.S. I just wanted to make my position clear. I didn’t want to give the wrong impression that I was offended.

^ Entirely subjective.