Today’s Friday question comes from Hauke B.:What kind of comedy, in terms of subject matter, tone or form, would you consider off-limits. Or does anything go, as long as it's funny?
First off, it depends on the audience. Andrew Dice Clay’s routine might not fly at a NOW convention. But at a men’s prison or any other sodomy supporting organization that same material is gangbusters.
My rule is: Any joke that intentionally hurts someone, that is a gratuitous and cruel is off limits. Exploiting someone’s misery for the sake of a laugh is not acceptable. I don’t care how funny the joke is – to YOU.
And when someone tells you something in confidence and you use it to get a laugh, that’s a no-no. Excuse me but isn’t that just common sense?
In general, here’s my feeling: If you have a joke and you’re not sure if you've crossed the line or not, you have. Come up with something else.
Comedy can be edgy, biting, scathing, profane, even shocking but come on, folks, have a little humanity.
Here’s a helpful quiz. Which of these topics should be considered off limits?
A) 9-11
B) Sarah Palin
C) Paul Newman
D) Flava Flave
E) Hurricane Ike
F) Celebrity Rehab
G) Suicide bombers
H) Elisabeth Hasselbeck
I) Criticizing this blog
J) Tsunamis
K) Gang Rape
If you said A, C, E, G, I, J, K you have some judgment and you’re not Sandra Bernard.
What about jokes about AfterMASH being one of the worst TV spin offs? http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1845866_1846026_1845881,00.html
ReplyDeleteOkay. I'm always up to a challenge. (Well, not ALWAYS)
ReplyDeleteSo Sarah Palin, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, Flava Flav, and the ghost of Hurricane Ike Eisenhower, walk up to the no-host bar at Paul Newman's funeral, during a tsunami of grief for the saintly film-star. (Said Sarah: "I'd commit abstinence with Paul anytime! Even dead." "Me too!" said Hasselbeck. "Fuck off." said Newman's ghost), discussing how much they hate "By Ken Levine",
"It's so liberal." said Hasselbeck.
"You betcha!" said Palin, "And it believes in evolution too. And that pussy Levine has never even shot a moose!"
They noticed that there were no other celebrities there, as they were ALL in rehab.
"Maybe I should go into celebrity rehab," said Hasselbeck, "If I keep getting bombed like this, I'll kill myself."
"Don't you have to BE a celebrity first?" asked Hurricane Ike.
"Oh blow me, Hurricane!" said Hasselbeck.
"I will!!" said Flava.
"Where's Rudy Guiliani?" asked Sarah.
"He ran down to the corner 9-11 for some smokes," said Flava Flav.
Isn't that a 7-11?" asked Hurricane Ike.
"Not when Rudy's there." said Sarah.
"Let's blow this joint." said Hasselbeck.
"Ya sure gotta one track mind, Liz, you betcha." said Sarah.
But on their way back to their cars, they were all gang-abstinenced by some horny dinosaurs, who were sharing the planet with humans.
Cheers
"But on their way back to their cars, they were all gang-abstinenced by some horny dinosaurs, who were sharing the planet with humans."
ReplyDeleteThat's a hell of an act. What do you call it?
The @r!$t* (r@t$
ReplyDelete"Greg said...
ReplyDeleteThat's a hell of an act. What do you call it?"
A prehistoric slumber party?
Damn, I got most of the answers wrong. I'd better start chaining myself up during full moons.
ReplyDelete"Note: this post is an excuse to get in another pic of the "great one"."
ReplyDeleteAh, the picture you posted was of "The Great One's" HUSTLER co-star. "The Great One" has been Gleason's nickname/title for 50 years.
I truely believe no topic is off-limits. Taste enters into the POV, how you handle the subject matter, and who your audience is. A joke that depends for a laugh on thinking gang rape is okay won't fly, but that doesn't mean there's no way to use gang-rape in a joke. Remember the Rapists Support Group sketch John Belushi did on SNL 30 years ago? "A lot of the time a man will feel a certain amount of shame right after he commits a rape." It was damn funny then, and it's still funny. (GOT to have been a Michael O'Donahue sketch!)
"you have some judgment and you’re not Sandra Bernard."
Once at The Comedy Store, back before she was famous, I personally witnessed Sandra tell a joke about Farrah Fawcett-Majors being - I'm not kidding - gang-raped by Mexican banditos, while Lee Majors was actually sitting with Paul Williams in the audience.
Williams stood up (Which made his head lower than where it was while seated) and objected to the joke, pointing out Lee Majors beside him.
Sandra said, "I'm terribly sorry. I would never have told that joke if I'd known he was here. --- And who are YOU?"
Lee loudly said to Williams, "Let's go!"
Outside (Again, I personally witnessed this) Paul Mooney tried to get them to come back in, and played conciliator, saying, "Sandra really wouldn't have told that joke if she'd known you were there."
Majors said, "Well I would prefer she didn't tell that joke whether I'm here or not."
Oops. Wrong thing to say to Paul Mooney, who replied in full high-dudgeon, "Did I wake up this morning in RUSSIA?"
Frankly, I'm completely certain that Sandra was fully aware Majors was there. He could be easily seen from the stage, and I hadn't heard her tell that joke ever before. (And I was on-staff at the time, and saw her work pretty much every night.)
But hey, I wasn't offended. It's 28 years, and I still remember that entertaining incident vividly.
And there's a demonic part of me that truely feels that, if you're not offending ANYBODY, you're not doing your job.
AfterMASH is fair game. Go for it.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you mention suicide bombers as off-limits and still awarded a suicide bomber joke top 5 in the Komedy Kontest from April.
ReplyDeletehttp://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2008/04/komedy-kontest-finalists-vote-now.html
I did not judge the Komedy Kontest. It's not a joke I would have chosen, but we each have our own sensibilities. The question asked my parameters. That said, I found it fascinating that a lot of people reacted angrily to that joke.
ReplyDeletePoint well taken. I remembered you had defended the choice - but now that I reread HOW you defended it, it certainly wasn't a ringing endorsement.
ReplyDelete"Where's Rudy Guiliani?" asked Sarah.
ReplyDelete"He ran down to the corner 9-11 for some smokes," said Flava Flav.
Isn't that a 7-11?" asked Hurricane Ike.
"Not when Rudy's there." said Sarah.
From Jan:
Ihave to say, that made me laugh out loud--only because of how true it is.
I guess the question is: Pick your battles -- what's appropriate for the situation? I've seen Don Rickles' wife lower her eyes and shake her head in seeming shame at some of his remarks, but I'll bet she never turned down the checks he brought home for saying them.
ReplyDeleteLike any comedy writer probably has, I've written jokes about sex, politics and religion that brought angry glares (due to bad language, bad taste, personal bias, whatever) from the faces of family members, but went over really big when either I or someone else did them on the radio or in a club..
Maybe a rule of thumb might be to go far enough until you offend somebody to the point of where they try to shut you off (if they're in a position to do so), because then that's where the creativity kicks in. Now you'll start to think of different ways to work around the objections and still make your point (and hopefully get your laugh).
I'm going to have to disagree on tsunamis. Specific tsunamis are off limits, sure, but the concept in general is a rich comedy area. What is the deal with giant walls of water rushing at you?
ReplyDeleteGeorge Carlin's Rape can be funny routine on YouTube.
ReplyDeleteEven Paul Newman, revered and deceased as he now is, wouldn't be beyond me... Imagine the doctors coming out and announcing his passing to the world with the words "We realized he was gone when we discovered that what we had here was a failure to communicate"...
ReplyDeleteSorry, Ken -- couldn't resist. :)
Deliberately "offensive" jokes are a copout that means you haven't managed to come up with anything genuinely funny. Same as swearing. It's lazy comedy and there's a lot of it about. On the other hand, "Dexter"'s sister's foul mouth is a hoot.
ReplyDeleteIf you said A, C, E, G, I, J, K you have some judgment and you’re not Sandra Bernard.
ReplyDeleteSandra Bernard dissed this blog? Hmmmph. What does she know?
But what about solo rape?
ReplyDeleteOne of the funniest lines in BLAZING SADDLES is when Harvey Korman is interviewing bad guys to join his gang and he asks them to list their qualifications.
Bad Guy: "Rape, murder, arson
and rape."
Korman: "You said 'rape' twice."
Bad guy: "I like rape."
It's also a line that is almost always replaced when shown on broadcast TV or basic cable.
I would make jokes about AfterMASH but, like most of America, I never saw it
ReplyDeleteI found the death of Paul Newman a very difficult topic to write humorously about --- but I managed.
ReplyDeletehttp://tallulahmorehead.blogspot.com/2008/09/newman-oldman-deadman.html
tallulah, turn your head to the left and cough
ReplyDeleteWell that's about 2/3s of the url
ReplyDeletehttp://tallulahmorehead.blogspot.
com/2008/09/
newman-oldman-deadman.html
Reassemble without breaks, or just go to
http://tallulahmorehead.blogspot.com/
So since 9/11 is off-limits, I would assume you're also greatly offended by Monty Python's skits about the Spanish Inquisition, right? They both caused a lot of innocent deaths.
ReplyDeleteAnd Paul Newman? Really? We're not allowed to make salad dressing jokes because a very talented man died at the young age of 83?
If Sarah-SixPack-Palin winks at me one more time, I'll poke her fucking eye out.
ReplyDeleteOnly one of 'em though.
I want her to have one left so she can watch as Obama is sworn into office.
Considering how politicians have always seemed to be free range subjects of humor, why are there so few Obama jokes?
ReplyDeleteEvery other presidential candidate from time immemorial was the subject of scathing humor, but Obama seems to be off-limits. What's the deal there? Is it because of his race? Or because of the emotional investment so many have placed in his campaign? Or is it just impossible to get a handle on something funny about Obama?
I'm at a loss.
The 90 or so minutes, the teamwork, the scoring, the noise, the passion, the ecstasy, the intensity, the satisfaction after the end of it all
ReplyDeleteI love gang rape
My grandfather died in Fall Gelb, he was just a boy, hadn't even met my grandmother yet. but you think that's hilarious, huh Ken?
ReplyDeleteWith liberals, pro-life jokes are taboo.
ReplyDeleteA liberal meets a guy and asks "what do you do?" The guy says "I'm an abortion doctor." The liberal says "Thank you for your service."
Then the liberal meets an older guy and asks "what do you do?" The old guy says "I'm a soldier just back from Iraq and Afghanistan and I've been serving since Vietnam." The liberal says "Baby killer!"
Hey, anonymous. Try harder. Much harder. Before you post, please.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, 90% of gang rape participants think it's great.
ReplyDeleteI'm a sick fuck, so I think everything is funny. And to me nothing should be off limits. Comedy is there most of all to deal with the horrors of life... The worst the situation, the more you need humor.
ReplyDeleteAnd when did liberal mean PC? PC is something else that I think needs to end...
Let's speak to each as adults. And if you can't make a joke about 9-11 or Newman, then what's the point of being a comedy writer? If you aren't offending someone you aren't trying hard enough.
But maybe that's because I love Carlin and Bill Hicks.
I've got your funny suicide bomber jokes right here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwOL4rB-go
ReplyDeleteAchmed the Dead Terrorist.
Very funny.
"A liberal meets a guy and asks "what do you do?" The guy says "I'm an abortion doctor." The liberal says "Thank you for your service."
ReplyDeleteThen the liberal meets an older guy and asks "what do you do?" The old guy says "I'm a soldier just back from Iraq and Afghanistan and I've been serving since Vietnam." The liberal says "Baby killer!""
Too bad that joke's like 40 years too late. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone -- left wing, right wing, whatever wing -- who would call a war veteran a baby killer in this day and age.
It's so weird, normally right-wing chickenhawks pose such intellectually sound arguments. They never base their specious smears on false or nonsensical logic. Oh, wait...
Let me sort it out for you: Nobody loves abortion. Nobody hates the troops.
I know that's a lot for a Joe Six-Pack Hockey Mom to wrap his/her/its head around. But that's reality.
Elliott
One of the funniest Family Guy episodes was a depiction of Osama Bin Hatin' doing a stand up bit. He made reference to a suicide bomber bringing in a doctor's note. The whole bit was hysterical.
ReplyDelete