White people and the internets: a story of true love, white tigers and sacred cows.
Today, a bunch of links were flying around twitter about an article on Septa going on strike. I linked to a 6abc article because of a HILARIOUS comment.
And try finding a white bus driver.Everytime I see one while driving I almost cause an accident because I have to stop right in the middle of an intersection and just watch.It’s like seeing a white tiger.They’re almost extinct
Straight away I received a couple of DMs and some public mentions chiding me for finding racism funny. Seriously. White people crack me the hell up. Keeping the internet safe so that minorities don’t get offended because you know that they’re too stupid to see it on their own and make the decision on their own to be butthurt or not. As I said on twitter in response:
Really, white people. I’m loving you today! What would people do if you weren’t around to defend the internets?
For the record I can laugh at racists all day long. Notice how I said laugh AT racists, not laughing with them. The fact that this idiot thought it was appropriate to post that comment online I find ballsy (not in a good way…in a Napoleonic way) and just funny. I find humor in lots of different situations or else it’s be harder than it already is to take that stick out of my ass. RACISM IS NOT FUNNY RACISM IS AN AWFUL HATEFUL THING.
Let me say that again: Racism is not funny. It is deplorable.
Anyway, I’m reminded of a friend of mine’s post about 5 years ago in his livejournal. He’s since locked his livejournal but said people could copy and paste. So I’m not giving any credit (though I will if he changes his mind).
It does basically sum up how I feel about humor and situational humor (which he doesn’t touch on as such-laughing at the fact someone could actually say that not what they said).
[P]eople who are offended by humour suck.
Seriously, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: when someone tells a joke that’s potentially offensive and you laugh, you’re either laughing at the humour (the timing, the unexpected punchline, the fact that it’s taboo) or the content (rape, murder, racism, sexism, etc.)
For me, I assume people are laughing at the humour and not laughing at the content. Why? Because there’s nothing genuinely funny about any of the content. Racism itself isn’t funny, but racist jokes can be-and people’s indignant reactions to them even more so.
However, when someone draws a line-that is to say, when someone has a “sacred cow”, like “racist jokes are funny but jokes about rape aren’t”, then I have to assume that they’re not laughing at the humour. Otherwise, they’d realise that both are funny. That leaves me with the intolerable belief that they’re laughing at the content of the racist jokes.
The minute you draw a line or decide that some subjects are just not appropriate for humour, you’re saying that subject is somehow more important than all the stuff you laughed at. It’s a definite implied value judgment-AIDS jokes aren’t funny because AIDS is serious, but jokes about rape are funny because rape somehow doesn’t matter. Moreover, you’re saying that racist jokes are funny because racism is funny, etc. These are not the sort of people I care to share a laugh with.
It’s the same philosophy Trey Parker and Matt Stone follow. They’ve said over and over again with South Park that the minute they decide something is off limits, then everything else they’ve ever done becomes offensive.
In other words, be proud and happy that you don’t have a “sensitive” issue. It means you’re not a fucktard. Part of the reason I try to offend the offendable (sic) is that I hope some day they’ll learn this lesson and join us on the side of humour for humour’s sake.
A lot of the people who were offended by my tweet today watch Always Sunny in Philadelphia and tweet Thursday night long. I could only guess that they are Anti-Woman, Anti-Homeless, Anti-Mentally disabled, Anti-Physically disabled, and Anti-Gay to name a few things wrong with them, because they find those jokes funny but can’t find the situational humor in someone out of no where comparing a white SEPTA driver to a white tiger. Racial minorities are their sacred cow so they must hate retards. Fucking assholes. At least racial minorities can defend themselves. Corky doesn’t have the mental capacity to realize someone’s making fun of him (see “keeping internet safe” above).
For me I’d go on to say just because jokes or situations are offensive doesn’t automatically make them funny. Too many people just try to shock but they’re just really bad at humor. But c’mon someone comparing seeing a white SEPTA driver to a white tiger? That’s just so unreal it’s hilarious.
So you can think you’re taking the high road here with the whole “I take racism seriously” but really you just look like a douchebag who needs to be held down and be ass raped to loosen up a bit.
Feel free to comment and disagree but know that I think does who do not agree with the above are just wrong and obviously lack the intellectual oomph to process this situation without going “FEELINGS HURT = BAD”.