Issue 147 made me think about how much humor has changed. They say laughter is healthy and all that but I have to wonder if thanks to the mass media it has gone too far. The most watched episodes of a new season of American Idol are the early ones where the untalented singers are humiliated in front of millions by Simon tearing them to pieces for the amusement. The Star Wars kid (a cautionary tale if I ever saw one) made a youthful mistake that made him a laughingstock in front of not just his school but millions more through the internet. I'd like to ask you, do you think we've gone too far? Have we started using "humor" as an excuse to be assholes to each other and give it some notion of legitimacy? What do you think? Discuss.

It seems to me like the people who go to far aren't being told that because people are afraid of being accused of having no "sense of humor", and keep on being as asinine as they were to begin with.

Pretty broad statement though, and it's not a new concept/problem.

Broad statement? Absolutely. But I would think the popularity of reality TV would give this some legitimacy. People having their quirks exposed to the public to be jeered at has become commonplace. If you look at video sites, there are plenty of videos of people getting pranked or even beaten up for immediate posting ("This is Youtube material!")

I think that, while it is mean, ripping people to shreds for their idiocy has become essential to life. Why? Because people are no longer penalized or outcast for doing stupid things, and so when someone finally IS punished, they must bear the pains owed to hundreds of other idiots.

I think that it should stop, though there is not really much I (or anybody) can do. Sure, I plan to go into broadcast journalism, but there really isn't much we can do about it. What makes the green is always going to win.

The reason more people watch the audition episodes of American Idol is because it's better. It's better because it's not live, therefore they can edit it. Editing makes all the difference in reality tv shows.

I don't think we've become meaner. I think since the dawn of comedy people made fun of others. It's always been this way. I think it's more likely we're getting nicer, as more humour is just references or funny tones.

Shakespeares comedies could be alot darker & meaner then most of what passes as "comedy" today. Most of whats on Youtube I wouldnt call comedy; its funny, but not comedy.

I was watching Robot Chicken the other day. It was actually my favourite show before. But then I saw this one episode...

Basically, what went down was this little kid and his mom were having a nice, family evening watching TV and cuddling, when suddenly these thugs burst in through the door. The little kid was like "waaah mommy" and the thugs strapped her to a wall and shot her to death in front of the kid. Then, the kid's brother walked in to help, and they killed him too. Finally, the thugs strapped the kid to a table and ripped off his arms and legs.

I mean, what kind of humor is that?! I almost cried, let alone laughed. Later on in the episode, an old man was going on a killing rampage. He killed his wife, his kids, and then he broke into a hooker joint and started shooting all of the women. Come on, already...

Khell_Sennet:
I think that, while it is mean, ripping people to shreds for their idiocy has become essential to life. Why? Because people are no longer penalized or outcast for doing stupid things, and so when someone finally IS punished, they must bear the pains owed to hundreds of other idiots.

Why is being socially awkward or overestimating your abilities a capital offense worthy of mass humiliation? It's skating a fine line towards making bullying justified.

Stammer:
I was watching Robot Chicken the other day. It was actually my favourite show before. But then I saw this one episode...

Basically, what went down was this little kid and his mom were having a nice, family evening watching TV and cuddling, when suddenly these thugs burst in through the door. The little kid was like "waaah mommy" and the thugs strapped her to a wall and shot her to death in front of the kid. Then, the kid's brother walked in to help, and they killed him too. Finally, the thugs strapped the kid to a table and ripped off his arms and legs.

I mean, what kind of humor is that?! I almost cried, let alone laughed. Later on in the episode, an old man was going on a killing rampage. He killed his wife, his kids, and then he broke into a hooker joint and started shooting all of the women. Come on, already...

That may just be a satire for the point we are all making here though. I dont think it was meant to be punch line funny, more like satirizing the amount of violence in media. Or it could just be the writers got lazy.

General Ma Chao:
Why is being socially awkward or overestimating your abilities a capital offense worthy of mass humiliation? It's skating a fine line towards making bullying justified.

To me, the line between bullying and well-deserved humiliation is not a thin line, it is fact quite thick from years of McDonalds food and lack of exercise.

Bullying is to harass someone with little to no reason for doing so. It is picking on weaker people just because you can, or tormenting someone for enjoyment.

People who compete in American Idol either have supreme delusions of having talent they lack, or maybe, innocently, they don't realize they aren't as special as they think themselves to be. Either way it matters little. They are VOLUNTARILY entering a contest to determine their worth. The HAVE to realize when entering such a show that either they have what it takes, or they don't, and if they don't, they will be called out for it. There is no "participation prize" for the losers, only ONE will come out the winner and ALL the others are to be humiliated, or at the least, rejected. Now if they couldn't figure that out before they signed on for the show, I can't feel sorry for them.

In other situations, as reality TV is the cesspool of our culture, I do not believe in coddling people. If you publicly do something phenomenally retarded, realize that humiliation is the result, whether the humiliation comes from yourself or others. Not saying people have license to be a dick anytime someone screws up, but if you get caught on film, I don't know, drunk and calling a police officer a Jew, then slandering the entire Hebrew community... Yeah, there's gonna be blowback from that. Or if you murder your wife over an affair, get away with the murder, then try to write a book about your crime, rest assured we will taunt you for it for the rest of your days.

I think that deep down everyone has a lust for violence and it is amuing to see someone else in pain and/or suffering. If that be physical or emotional it will still amuse a wide population of people.

I don't think that we as a society are getting meaner or nicer, only that the people who are going to call others out for being retarded now have digital cameras and youtube at their disposal.

Look, we are getting meaner, and that is a good thing. Don't misunderstand me on this, the more people who stop doing stupid things in public, the fewer Memes, internet jokes and retards i have to deal with. Mediocrety is NOT good. it's ok. we need people to strive for exellence and they wont do that if we keep telling them how awesome they are

Well, throughout history we've watched people get axed for our entertainment (gold star if you thought of Rome), but over time, that's become taboo and inhumane, so instead we've switched to voluntary social injury to people in the guise of reality tv. It's all about knowing that someone, somewhere is having a worse day than we are. Hey, that's why slapstick comedy exists, so I'm not complaining.

laughter is the best medicine, unless you are suffering from massive aneurysms of the lungs.

but i just think that with the amazing power of anominaty (fuck off, its really hard to spell) and the knowledge that it will most likly never come back to haunte us we are allowed to air all of the racist, homophobic and xynophobic thoughts that most of us have bubbling under the surface.
i mean back in the days before the internet if you wanted to be racist you hade to join the KKK (in america) or the BNP (in UK) but now all you do is go on to 4chan vent all your racistremarks on to there and go back to being a healthy member of sociaty (i suddenly feel like i am in a Brave New World)

also *puts on darwin hat* ever since we could stand upright we have had to be, to an extent, completly cold to other humans. If we had stoped at every littel problem that befell people then we would not be hear and this need to be uncaring, the need to blockout the suffering of another has been hardwired in to us on a level that we dont fully understand *takes of darwin hat* so that means that we will always be able to ignore the suffering of another (just turn on the news and countthe number of stories about africa).

as for why we sometimes enjoy watching another suffer. well that could just be the natrual amount of evil in all of us.

People love to watch other people suffer. Whether it's in the gladiator's ring or on the internet, people getting hurt and/or making complete fools of themselves is something everyone can enjoy. Just look at the Three Stooges, lovable idiots beating the hell out of each other is comic gold. I guess it might have something to do with pride and self worth too. We're less forgiving of those deemed inferior to us and we love to see them get their just desserts for being more mentally deficient than us.

Frankly, I enjoy it when people get hurt or killed in hilarious ways, just look at the Darwin Awards, cruel, but still funny.

I will concede the point about reality TV. They DID sign a contract knowing that a camera was always on.

But what about those who didn't know a camera was on, or simply believed it was under wraps. Star Wars kid made the mistake of forgetting about his tape. I doubt he intended anyone to ever see it. That mistake humiliated him in front of millions and made him into a societal punchline. "Don't taze me, bro" guy certainly didn't ask to get tazed even if he was out of line. Now he's become a societal punchline too. Am I the only one who thinks it's a bit "cruel and unusual" to laugh at people caught in moments of such complete vulnerability? Would you be able to "laugh it off" if you were recorded doing something less than dignified and humiliated in front of the world?

Stammer:
Basically, what went down was this little kid and his mom were having a nice, family evening watching TV and cuddling, when suddenly these thugs burst in through the door. The little kid was like "waaah mommy" and the thugs strapped her to a wall and shot her to death in front of the kid. Then, the kid's brother walked in to help, and they killed him too. Finally, the thugs strapped the kid to a table and ripped off his arms and legs.

And people think that video games cause kids to be violent. :O

Seriously, that is MESSED UP. This perfectly justifys that humor has gone too far. I also agree that things today is just about bullying, but as long as everybody does it it is fine. :O

General Ma Chao:
I will concede the point about reality TV. They DID sign a contract knowing that a camera was always on.

But what about those who didn't know a camera was on, or simply believed it was under wraps. Star Wars kid made the mistake of forgetting about his tape. I doubt he intended anyone to ever see it. That mistake humiliated him in front of millions and made him into a societal punchline. "Don't taze me, bro" guy certainly didn't ask to get tazed even if he was out of line. Now he's become a societal punchline too. Am I the only one who thinks it's a bit "cruel and unusual" to laugh at people caught in moments of such complete vulnerability? Would you be able to "laugh it off" if you were recorded doing something less than dignified and humiliated in front of the world?

Ok, this comes back to "people not wanting to be accountable for their actions".

The "StarWars Kid" borrowed a school video camera (public property), recorded something with it that he did not wish people to see, then forgot to remove or erase the tape inside. The next kids to borrow the camera found the tape, it's not like they were spying on him and recording without permission, but they did see what he did and decided to humiliate him for it. No it was not nice of the kids to release the video on the internet, but it falls to the Starwars Kid not to leave incriminating shit lying around. His mistake, thus the humiliation is deserved.

As to the "Don't Tase me Bro" guy, he was intentionally being a jackass knowing full well his entire class was watching... It's not like he wasn't LOOKING for attention. Yes the cop/guard/monkey went overboard, but that's not the issue. The guy was being a f**king retard in public, and someone videotaped it. Boo hoo to him.

Yeah, the internet might just be the "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING" message we need. A sort of warning against unrestrained behavior. It not only demands accountability but provides humor, what else can do that?

"Good night and good luck."

...I really have nothing else to say.

/done

I'm going to throw some fuel on this fire by uttering the words: Happy Tree Friends.

Ok, you people play nice.

John Galt:
People love to watch other people suffer. Whether it's in the gladiator's ring or on the internet, people getting hurt and/or making complete fools of themselves is something everyone can enjoy. Just look at the Three Stooges, lovable idiots beating the hell out of each other is comic gold. I guess it might have something to do with pride and self worth too. We're less forgiving of those deemed inferior to us and we love to see them get their just desserts for being more mentally deficient than us.

We humans like to see ourselves better than others, so we humiliate them when we get the chance. It's human nature.

Stammer:
I was watching Robot Chicken the other day. It was actually my favourite show before. But then I saw this one episode...

Basically, what went down was this little kid and his mom were having a nice, family evening watching TV and cuddling, when suddenly these thugs burst in through the door. The little kid was like "waaah mommy" and the thugs strapped her to a wall and shot her to death in front of the kid. Then, the kid's brother walked in to help, and they killed him too. Finally, the thugs strapped the kid to a table and ripped off his arms and legs.

I mean, what kind of humor is that?! I almost cried, let alone laughed. Later on in the episode, an old man was going on a killing rampage. He killed his wife, his kids, and then he broke into a hooker joint and started shooting all of the women. Come on, already...

You clearly cannot comprehend sophisticated humor.

Khell_Sennet:
As to the "Don't Tase me Bro" guy, he was intentionally being a jackass knowing full well his entire class was watching... It's not like he wasn't LOOKING for attention. Yes the cop/guard/monkey went overboard, but that's not the issue. The guy was being a f**king retard in public, and someone videotaped it. Boo hoo to him.

Actually, the issue was about the cop going overboard along with the supposed free speech infringement.

There are plenty of videos online of people being a dumbass. What made his video stand out was the excessive force of the police, which is one of the reasons for it garnering so much internet and media attention.

General Ma Chao:
Broad statement? Absolutely. But I would think the popularity of reality TV would give this some legitimacy. People having their quirks exposed to the public to be jeered at has become commonplace. If you look at video sites, there are plenty of videos of people getting pranked or even beaten up for immediate posting ("This is Youtube material!")

Ah, my old nemesis Reality TV. If ever there was a pre-requisite for Eugenics, any person who had been involved in reality TV would be my favorite clause... I never cared for Reality TV, and I never cared for people who did like it. Mostly I find them to be vapid, senseless retards who breathe from their mouths and can't think for themselves. Okay, enough ranting on that...

I do believe that society is tending more towards depravity and asshole behavior as humor than ever before... But maybe that is just my inner sociopath speaking...

That is my opinion, and I just don't feel like backing it up with observations. So there it is...

Lord Frunkamunch:

Stammer:
I was watching Robot Chicken the other day. It was actually my favourite show before. But then I saw this one episode...

Basically, what went down was this little kid and his mom were having a nice, family evening watching TV and cuddling, when suddenly these thugs burst in through the door. The little kid was like "waaah mommy" and the thugs strapped her to a wall and shot her to death in front of the kid. Then, the kid's brother walked in to help, and they killed him too. Finally, the thugs strapped the kid to a table and ripped off his arms and legs.

I mean, what kind of humor is that?! I almost cried, let alone laughed. Later on in the episode, an old man was going on a killing rampage. He killed his wife, his kids, and then he broke into a hooker joint and started shooting all of the women. Come on, already...

You clearly cannot comprehend sophisticated humor.

Clearly your definition of Sophisticated and mine differ greatly...

When I think of sophisticated I think Good quality, slightly intellectual, and definitely not low-brow, like, you know, killing innocents and kids...

I'm not getting meaner.

The people I take the piss out of are getting more stupid, thus, providing me with better material.

While I don't agree with totally ripping people apart when they don't sign up for it like on reality TV I don't necessarily think we're getting meaner. If anything, people are simply becoming desensitized to things.

I think that yes
we are getting a tad harsh sometimes with what we say
but no one really steps up to tell people when enough is enough.

BUT

If u make fun of people
and cant take jokes back (which is really annoying)
do not do it.
You dish it and you have to take it back.
Only exceptions of this is making fun of people for something they cant help which is just out of order.

Also when were talking about reality TV and such.
People know what there signing up for,
such as american idol, big brother etc
there going to have to be prepared for either approval or to be told they cant sing for shit or what people think of them
so on that one i think people should know they could set them up for the public to see.

Also with internet videos and such, for example the star wars kid one, chris croker
dont do it.
If your going to get filmed jumping around and such or balling your eyes out
and then when it gets posted
people laugh
youve just got to kind of accept it.
if you filmed and posted it
then also responsible with whats happened,
you did it so bite the bullet and take the critasism.

Things that are beyond the persons control and are filmed and humilated for
the fun of others.
Then thats harsh
because your exploiting the person and just making them look stupid for peoples ammusement.

I was actually discussing TV humour and such when i was in my media lesson a few days ago.
came to the conclusion that everything has been done pretty much
every joke
or idea
has been done atleast once.
So people are trying to over step the boundry all the time.
People always need something new but sometimes its over the line.
People dont have to be harsh to be funny.

Cheeze_Pavilion:

Technically, in that case, didn't they actually *steal* his tape in order to humiliate him? They didn't go around telling stories about what they saw: they physically stole the tape and then used his image without permission, another illegal act.

Just because I leave something of mine on public property doesn't mean I've abandoned it.

The tape was left in a public area, the tape itself was the schools, not the star wars kid's. The other kids, the ones who found the tape, did not steal anything. Yes they did post his image on the internet without permission, but due to the circumstances of how the tape was acquired, the courts ruled that (while mean), the kids didn't do anything illegal. Had they profited from the video, THEN it would have been criminal, but people seem to have this delusion of privacy... In truth, anyone can videotape anyone else if both parties are in a public area.