Louis C.K. Stirs Outrage

[Elixir]

The arithmetic makes it well within possibility that more than 5.5 million would approve of John Wilkes Booth, provided they knew who he was and what he did.

Yabut sadly, very few among those who would approve of JWB's actions would know who he was. They may be "very fine people" but they're not the most edjimacated y'know.

 

[Emily Lake]

Oddly enough, I think more people today approve of what John Wilkes Booth did than when he actually was alive... or for the remainder of the short span of time that asshole was alive.

That’s a ridiculous assertion.


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Not really all that ridiculous. The total white population of the Confederacy was 5.5 million. Today, the US is 323 million. The arithmetic makes it well within possibility that more than 5.5 million would approve of John Wilkes Booth, provided they knew who he was and what he did.

Totally irrelevant to the discussion, but not ridiculous.

You’re simultaneously assuming that the entire population of the south approved of the assassination AND that there are over 5 Million people today who are so racist that they think the assassination of Lincoln was a good thing.

I find your assumptions questionable.

ETA: Southern Poverty Law Center, which has been frequently challenged for having an overly broad definition of what constitutes a hate group currently shows 953 hate groups in the US... and that includes non-white groups like black nationalists. Your 5.5 million number would mean those groups on average have over 5,700 members each.

I’m skeptical of this being as pervasive as you seem to think it is.

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[James Brown]

Scenes from a Multiverse

 

[GenesisNemesis]

It was funny. And that's verboten now. Comedy must not be funny; it must be Woke.

"Funny" is subjective. Personally I'm tired of edgy humor, especially when it's only goal is to stir outrage/provoke others. But am I going to be outraged by it? That's purely a choice I make and I'd rather spend time doing other things.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Also why is anything edgy that a comedian says "funny" by default? Why is it that we should not criticize a comedian because what they said was "funny"? That is to reject critical thought. There's no reason I ought to bow down to anyone and not question them simply because what they said wasn't politically correct. Actually examine what they said instead of engaging in blind hero worship.

 

[Emily Lake]

Also why is anything edgy that a comedian says "funny" by default? Why is it that we should not criticize a comedian because what they said was "funny"? That is to reject critical thought. There's no reason I ought to bow down to anyone and not question them simply because what they said wasn't politically correct. Actually examine what they said instead of engaging in blind hero worship.

It’s not necessarily funny, at least not to me. But I do understand that I’m not the sole arbiter of what constitutes “funny” and that other people have different preferences than I do. So I don’t get to declare a comedian to be “not funny” just because I didn’t like something he or she said. All I can say is that I don’t find them funny.

Also, for the record, whether I find a comedian’s routine funny or not has nothing to do with what kind of a person they are. I still find Bill Cosby’s stand up funny, even if he’s an asshole. And it doesn’t matter how great a guy Sam Kinnison might have been, I never cared for his routines.

It’s preference. Strawberry ice cream isn’t “bad” just because I dislike it.


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[Gun Nut]

Any other comic could have told the same joke and everything would be just fine, because they would use a funny voice and become a "character."

I disagree. The problem is, it isn't a joke. A joke requires structure. What he said was post Season Three Family Guy humor, which is nothing more than a sentence.

I always think back to when Steve Irwin had just died tragically in a scuba incident with a stingray. Norm MacDonald was on the Daily Show and he made a few unbelievably poorly timed, but outrageously funny comments about Irwin's death. The key to it working was that he wasn't degrading the guy that had died (or in CK's case, the ones who suffered from the trauma of a school shooting). They were twisted observations about how anyone could be shocked that a guy named "The Crocodile Hunter" had died. Edgy comedy requires finesse and in general, the more tragic or complicated the subject, the more finesse and talent is required to pull it off. A good example is Life is Beautiful won an Oscar (should have won more) and Jerry Lewis's abomination (despite good intentions) is locked away in a vault.

So this isn't about the character or persona of the comedian. It is simply that CK Louis didn't even bother to try to make an actual joke. And that is why it wasn't funny. At the very least it is offensive to people paying money to see a comedy show, when a comedian phones in material.

It was around 1950 that the "structure of a joke" had expanded from "setup -> punchline" to "storytelling". CK didn't invent that, whether you liked his material or not.

 

[Gun Nut]

Well, it is technically impossible to get the murdered teens to testify in DC. So those that survived are all we have left.

And last I checked, I don’t think there are any celebrities that were birthed at that school. We’ve got political whores by the gross on cable news, awaiting to talk during a panel to express buzzwords, but heaven forbid we give teens from a school that was evacuated because of dead bodies, the good guy with a gun couldn’t perform magic, Trump wasn’t there to storm in, and yet another person just had to kill more people, a venue to discuss about individuals mass murdering people in schools.

Yes, what a brilliant point by CK.

For fuck sakes, wasn’t Parkland one of the first school shootings where the students finally had a chance to speak?!

since comedy is subjective i won't even pretend that i'm going to try to argue with you whether or not the joke was funny,

I'm saying that it wasn't a joke.

.. cause it didn't start with "knock, knock" or someone walking into a bar, or even a blonde... we know, we know...

 

[Gun Nut]

Abraham Lincoln was murdered while sitting in a theater box on April 15, 1865. This was 153 years ago.

At what point in history did the joke, "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?" become funny?

23.4 years... that is how long it takes for a tragedy to be acceptable comedy.

In the movie "The Aristocrats" (not to be confused with "The AristoCATS" - a common mistake), an interesting story about Gilbert Godfrey is told. He made a 911 joke WAAAAY too soon, almost got booed off the stage, and then proceeded to up the anti further with delivery of what was otherwise an "inside joke" among comedians.. known as "the Aristocrats" joke. The ultimate "front loaded" comedy, used to express the approach a particular comic makes to comedy. Great movie. highly recommended...
Point being, even a terribly inappropriate joke can be easily forgiven... and is all in the eye of the beholder.