A quick poll - offensive or not?

[Pete 75C]

In today's Independent...

 

A Tourette Syndrome charity has asked for an apology after a pun inspired by the neurological disorder won Funniest Joke at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Olaf Falafel was revealed on Monday as this year’s winner of Dave’s Funniest Joke.

 

The joke:

“I keep randomly shouting out ‘broccoli’ and ‘cauliflower’ – I think I might have florets.”

 

Now I know it's fashionable to be offended by everything (I can't subscribe to that), but I actually thought it was quite funny. Maybe I'm just a dinosaur, but I think I'm definitely doomed.

 

 

[chris p bacon]

It was funny.

 

It's a play on words rather than being a malicious sideswipe at those with Tourettes.

[Phil Parker]

A charity you've never heard of gets some publicity from being offended. As @chris p bacon says, it's a play on words.

[colin penfold]

Funny

[RedgateModels]

Maybe a joke about Snowflakes could win next year?

[hayfield]

Most jokes are at the expense of either someone or something, now people get offended by the least thing. Some will find it funny others will not. Political correctness gone mad, the thought police are now trying to dictate what  we think is funny or not

[Pete 75C]

8 minutes ago, Phil Parker said:

A charity you've never heard of gets some publicity from being offended. As @chris p bacon says, it's a play on words.

 

I think it's backfired on the charity. In my humble opinion, the charity looks a bit stupid, and the comedian has got some great publicity.

[BoD]

I don't think it important whether we find it offensive or not. What matters is if those who actually suffer from the syndrome find it offensive or upsetting.

[Reorte]

1 minute ago, BoD said:

I don't think it important whether we find it offensive or not. What matters is if those who actually suffer from the syndrome find it offensive or upsetting.

 

In general I verge towards the opposite end of that spectrum - something should only be regarded as offensive if it's intended to be. There are exceptions (mostly through ignorance) but I'd rather not go down the path of tiptoeing around people who really shouldn't be getting worked up over some things. Sometimes it already feels like you're only allowed to have a 100% positive view of some things...

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Clearly the talent on offer was very thin this year. Not only not original but done so much better before.

 

[woodenhead]

19 minutes ago, Phil Parker said:

A charity you've never heard of gets some publicity from being offended. As @chris p bacon says, it's a play on words.

'Snowflake' has been weaponised by both the left and right now so if you don't like what you hear you are an elitist snowflake who's views are wrong because they are not mine.  Equally, being outraged is a very good way of getting noticed on social media and having attention lavished upon you for the 'Likes'

 

I am guessing all the Tourettes charity wanted to do was probably use some faux outrage to garner some media time and raise awareness that the condition does impact a lot of people, it's probably worked against the person who raised it but we are talking about Tourettes in the media so it maybe fulfilled it's purpose. 

 

There was another article I read earlier this week for another group of people who are unable to eat anything because for one reason or another their stomach and digestive system does not function as it should.  There was one company who made the individualised specialist dietary liquids that the sufferers have to ingest via their bloodstream.  A few weeks back the government shut down the company over a risk of infection and it won't re-open until the end of the year - leaving several hundred people without the correct nutrients that their bodies need relying instead on standardised versions which are not as good, one chap was left with only saline at one point.  These people felt invisible, there aren't many of them but without the nutrients they would die and they felt abandoned.  So getting their predicament into the news was designed to try and get the government to resolve the issue quickly and not let it drag on.

 

The point I am making is there are a lot of charities and illnesses that don't get much publicity and they all have to find ways to raise public attention to issues, whilst in the case of the joke it is a play on words and not a direct attack on sufferers of Tourettes, sufferers do get made fun of so their raising of attention was valid in that respect.

[Torper]

I'm getting increasingly offended by people claiming to be offended by things that aren't offensive.  Maybe it's a new hobby.  I think that some people search for stuff which can offend them ot they think might offend someone else, and which they can then complain about.  Just a few days ago VW had to withdraw an advert because a grand total of three people complained that it stereotyped genders.

 

DT

Edited August 20, 2019 by Torper

[woodenhead]

9 minutes ago, Torper said:

I'm getting increasingly offended by people claiming to be offended by things that aren't offensive.  Maybe it's a new hobby.  I think that some people search for stuff which can offend them ot they think might offend someone else, and which they can then complain about.  Just a few days ago VW had to withdraw an advert because a grand total of three people complained that it stereotyped genders.

 

DT

You're right it is a hobby, a result of the me me me culture on social media, it used to be enough to show people you'd gone out for a pint or had cooked a nice meal but now you have to be 'woke' and 'on trend' with everything.

 

There's a chap i used to work with, he is constantly moaning about things on Facebook, and then moans about all the moaners without seeing the hypocrisy.

 

I've stopped posting on Facebook, it's useful for getting local knowledge of stuff in my town and it has lots of pictures of trains old and new on it but I'm no longer actively posting stuff or liking for the sake of liking.

 

Off to see a film tomorrow about living in the present and not grasping for things I don't actually need.

[Nick C]

I don't find this joke offensive, but I also don't find it funny - the others in the shortlist were funnier IMHO.

 

Just now, Torper said:

I'm getting increasingly offended by people claiming to be offended by things that aren't offensive.  Maybe it's a new hobby.  I think that some people search for stuff which can offend them and which they can then complain about.  Just a few days ago VW had to withdraw an advert because a grand total of three people complained that it stereotyped genders.

 

DT

It's been like that for ages - they love getting offended on someone else's behalf, usually without actually asking the supposed offendee whether they were actually offended. I seem to remember one a few years ago, in which 'they' got offended by a joke about Muslims, on behalf of the Muslims. The head of the Muslim Council of Britain responded that he was more offended by them taking offence on his behalf than he was by the original joke...

[Reorte]

17 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

There's a chap i used to work with, he is constantly moaning about things on Facebook, and then moans about all the moaners without seeing the hypocrisy.

 

That one gets on my nerves. Aside from the hypocrisy it's the "you should only have positive opinions about things" attitude, which creates an environment where the obnoxious can breed unchallenged. The world is full of things that I can't stand. Many of them are things a lot of other people seem to want. I don't particularly like the sometimes unpleasant arguments that result from that but I'd far rather have them than pretend to like them. Worse still are those who say I should learn to not be bothered by them - that's really back to creating the environment they can breed in and is getting disturbingly close to brainwashing.

[hayfield]

38 minutes ago, Torper said:

I'm getting increasingly offended by people claiming to be offended by things that aren't offensive.  Maybe it's a new hobby.  I think that some people search for stuff which can offend them ot they think might offend someone else, and which they can then complain about.  Just a few days ago VW had to withdraw an advert because a grand total of three people complained that it stereotyped genders.

 

DT

 

 

DT

 

Totally agree with you. Take the 2 adverts that have been recently banned by the advertising standards body, the two men who put the baby on the food conveyor, firstly it probably happened like many things we find funny and as both a male and a farther I DO NOT FIND IT OFFENSIVE but funny

 

Then there was the car advert (VW?) showing men doing things and a woman feeding a baby whilst an electric/hybrid car drives pass !!    Its a great pity they don't spend their time on things that adversely affect people like the constant bombardment of gambling adds we constantly have to endure

 

Some how we get things totally out of proportion 

Edited August 20, 2019 by hayfield

[Reorte]

2 minutes ago, hayfield said:

Totally agree with you. Take the 2 adverts that have been recently banned by the advertising standards body, the two men who put the baby on the food conveyor, firstly it probably happened like many things we find funny and as both a male and a farther I DO NOT FIND IT OFFENSIVE but funny

 

Then there was the car advert (VW?) showing men doing things and a woman feeding a baby whilst an electric/hybrid car drives pass !!    Its a great pity they don't spend their time on things that adversely affect people like the constant bombardment of gambling adds we constantly have to endure

 

Some how we get things totally out of proportion 

 

The baby one sounded a bit eye-rolling. So I can understand why people don't want the "woman is in the kitchen / doing the housework" appearance we used to get, and conversely the more modern "men are useless idiots" ones have got a bit tiresome too. But the reason either of them was a problem was because they were unbalanced. I don't have a problem at all with equal stereotyping for comic effect.

[woodenhead]

Anyway before we get too deep, a little interlude on the weather in Dawlish this morning, who wouldn't want to be taking a stroll down here right now

[ejstubbs]

22 minutes ago, Nick C said:

I don't find this joke offensive, but I also don't find it funny - the others in the shortlist were funnier IMHO.

 

Maybe not all of them, but IMO the efforts by Milton Jones, Richard Pulsford and Ivo Graham were a lot better.

[woodenhead]

Just now, ejstubbs said:

 

Maybe not all of them, but IMO the efforts by Milton Jones, Richard Pulsford and Ivo Graham were a lot better.

Maybe they picked the florets joke on purpose knowing it would offend even though it shouldn't, these comedians are a clever lot 

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Worlds gone mad.

 

Mike.

[hayfield]

1 minute ago, Reorte said:

 

The baby one sounded a bit eye-rolling. So I can understand why people don't want the "woman is in the kitchen / doing the housework" appearance we used to get, and conversely the more modern "men are useless idiots" ones have got a bit tiresome too. But the reason either of them was a problem was because they were unbalanced. I don't have a problem at all with equal stereotyping for comic effect.

 

Look at the advert first, I understood it to mean a child can be brought up in a clean environment, by us changing to electric/hybrid cars 

 

I am of an older generation, which if these restaurant food conveyors were available when my daughter was you we would have been putting then on for both a laugh and the child's enjoyment. As for modern fathers !!!  I will hold my council at risk of offending those poor souls.

 

If people were not stereotypical we would not be able to make stereotypical statements or jokes, if someone in jest makes a joke about me being fat, old, bald or part Welsh providing its in jest I laugh with them. I think the saying is lighten up a bit and stop taking offence at everything   

[woodenhead]

2 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Worlds gone mad.

 

Mike.

Or we're just getting old......

 

In the 1910s - give women the vote, the world's gone mad

In the 1970s - give women equal rights, the worlds gone mad

 

You wouldn't question that women should have the vote or have equal rights so perhaps where we are now is the natural progression, for people a lot younger than us it is the norm, we're just old school.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

I got severely told off, when on being informed that a Schizophrenia support society (which had something of a turbulent history)  had split and there were now two factions each with its own chairman and committee, spontaneously came out with: "Oh no, they will be in four minds about everything now".

 

Time to start my own society for Congenital and Chronic Compulsive Comeditis Syndrome?

[Sir TophamHatt]

I wasn't offended.

Not much offends me to be honest.

However, after the 2nd time of hearing it, I barely sniggered.

Edited August 20, 2019 by Sir TophamHatt