• Where do you draw the line for aggressive humor?
    27 replies, posted
I don't like the words "aggressive humor", but it's the best I could find that matched what I'm talking about: [quote]Aggressive humor is a style of humor that is potentially detrimental towards others. This type of humor is characterized by the use of sarcasm, put-downs, teasing, criticism, ridicule, and other types of humor used at the expense of others. Aggressive humor often disregards the impact it might have on others. Prejudices such as racism and sexism are considered to be the aggressive style of humor. This type of humor may at times seem like playful fun, but sometimes the underlying intent is to harm or belittle others. Aggressive humor is related to higher levels of neuroticism and lower levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness. Examples of aggressive humor on the HSQ might include: - When telling jokes or saying funny things, I am usually not very concerned about how other people are taking it. - People are never offended or hurt by my sense of humor. (reversed) - If you think people are laughing at you, they probably are.[/quote] [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humor_styles#Aggressive_humor[/url] In other words: making fun of others. Where do you draw the line: who are you allowed to make fun of and to what extent? When is it too much and becomes offensive? I was talking to a buddy who told me his rule of thumb: you should always shoot up, and never down. Belittling people below you is wrong. But is that always true? And why are we allowed to make fun of people who are above us, like celebrities? I'm really undecided about this, because I'm trying to differentiate when humor stops being enjoyable and is bullying, distasteful, and unacceptable. It's a very subjective idea, which is why I'm posting it here in Fast Threads, where people can voice their opinions. (i.e. post your thoughts)
In a lot of cases it's always really unacceptable and incredibly demeaning but it depends on the person who's the subject of the humor. I don't think this is a good example, but my friend and I always go back and forth at each other with pointless slurs and etcetera. All in all though, I'd draw the line at genuinely demeaning someone for a characteristic they feel bad about. I've been around people who do that to others, friends of theirs, so on and so forth, and it always sort of leaves you feeling like shit.
Okay, so I'll give you guys the down low on what I'm trying to get at: I really enjoy the deviantArt Appreciation Station and all of the bad and obscene artwork in there. It's a literal example of me actually laughing at other people's artwork. With Retsupurae, I enjoy some of the videos where he's belittling start-up letsplayers. Back when the TF2 Workslop thread was around, I liked seeing people's bad weapon and cosmetic submissions. It's weird though, because I'm technically laughing at people who are putting their heart and soul into something, and it makes me feel a bit sour as well. I'm not really laughing at the creators, though, just the content. I personally think it's too far when they start following people just to troll their every move, like in the instance of the CWCki.
I used to laugh at other people for not being good at art, but I stopped the moment that started happening to me. (The only time I still laugh is when they draw something really weird and creepy)
I privately laugh at other people's bad art as a defensive mechanism because I suck just as much, if not more. Many cases, I know I might be able to draw better than the stuff in DAAS - but there would still be some better artist looking down on me regardless.
I may laugh or smile at other people's mistakes and failures, but it's only to relax the atmosphere. If they don't take it well, I apologize.
I don't.
When it's about physical flaws or characteristics the person made fun of didn't choose or can't help. Physical appearance; Laughing at somebody for getting an ugly haircut is one thing, but I don't really agree with making fun of how a person looks, their sex and how they were created as it wasn't their deliberate choice. Ethnicity to some extent, cultural stereotypes can be fine as long as nobody actually gets offended. Situational I guess.
It depends entirely on context. If I were to right this instant call you [I]anything[/I] my hockey teammates throw around I'd probably get banned, but we're all desensitized to the shit we say. Now, would we actually throw those things around if there were disabled people or minorities in the audience? Probably not, because we're assholes to each other but we know we're hard to offend and not everyone will find it funny. What it boils down to is, "aggressive" humor is still humor, which is extremely subjective on its own. Any kind of humor can be offensive, you just need to know who you're joking with.
I only enjoy it if it's a person that wrongs others and mistreats people that don't deserve it, or it's just harmless jabs not meant to be cruel or demeaning to the person. Other than that, I don't really think it's right to just go and mess with people just because you can, especially if what they're doing is completely harmless. I'm not against harmless ribbing, but when it gets to the point of mocking them directly and looking down on them for things about themselves they can't help, or (harmless) things they happen to enjoy, then it's just too mean spirited for me. And often times the people do it are total hypocrites, and that just pisses me off. It's why I can't cringe threads that are supposed to be just harmless ribbing, but often devolve into borderline stalking. That shit's not cool.
Don't stop unless they're crying/shooting at you.
I laugh at my gay friend everyday and he thinks it is funny until I joked about his crush. (another friend of mine) I feel like an asshole
i really only go as far as i know the people around me can take, and even if they are hard to offend i really don't go too far with it. i think anything can be funny, if the joke is good and delivered right. you just have to be aware of the people around you, as they may not share the same sense of humor. so basically don't call a white friend of yours a cousin-fucking hillbilly hick if you know he could be offended.
i don't really like making fun of specific people. groups of people are a different story because i'm making fun of the characteristics of the group and not the people specifically. the only specific people i'll make fun of are long dead people, my friends, and darksydephil [editline]3rd April 2015[/editline] but even then i don't like making fun of people for things they do eg shows they watch or hobbies. if they're creepy or stupid about it its open season, but if they're, say, a brony, as long as they aren't injecting it into anything i don't really give a shit, that isn't anything worth making fun of someone over
I use to make fun with my gf and she does the same with me with silly stuff. I also use to make fun of mistakes or what some people think but nothing extreme. I also use sarcasm with my friends. Everybody keeps it cool because they know who I am. And if I'm about to get too far, I seriously apologize to them. I also dislike to make fun of other's tastes. As long as people don't get their tastes all over my face, they can be everything they want to.
Depends if I'm with people or not, and what kind of humour they share. Honestly my taste in humour can be light hearted to pretty dark humour, it's just how I am or who I'm with during the moment. Though in real life I believe it's crude to laugh at someones face about their weight or physical appearance. I can't really remember a recent time where I've made fun of somebody for what they are because I find it silly to do so. On the internet no matter who you are or where you come from, you can always expect some sort of dark and crude humour that will be used against you and you shouldn't take it seriously. It's just an example of how anonymous messaging is completely different from real life contact.
My very good friends and I use aggressive humor exclusively for each other. For example, I was sitting with some friends at lunch earlier this week and one of them said "I was born a winner!" so I replied, "What happened?" and everyone, including him and me, had a genuine laugh. But we do that because we know that we aren't being malicious, we're just teasing and there are no feelings of ill-will coming from anyone. Whenever I meet someone new, I tone down that kind of joking because I don't know if they'll appreciate that.
My friends and I aren't easily offended so aggressive humor is like our main humor. Birds of a feather :v: I don't think I can be friends with people who are super sensitive.
I draw the line of aggressive humor where it comes to people I don't know well enough to know that they can take it without prejudice. There's a time and place for everything.
I don't take aggressive humor well (I'm really self-conscious, so naturally I'm not a big fan of hearing it unless it's something so worn-out by now I don't give a shit. It all depends. Like, if I spent time and effort on something and someone points out that it's shit, even if they're joking, it just kinda drops my spirits a bit), but I say it all the time to and about friends (if they don't care). I go by a "if they don't know it's fine" rule because I like making people laugh, which is why I say things that way, and hate making people (that I like or don't know) cry, which is why I don't say it to their face.
I tend to have a relatively dark sense of humor on occasion. I personally feel that aggressive humor like any form of humor has its place - if you don't know where to use it you're just going to come off as being a huge cunt. Inside jokes among say, a close knit group of people are one thing but if you try the same brand of humor with others they might not appreciate it at all. Don't make fun of people for shit they can't control. Though in my view, minor flaws should be accepted for what they are instead of people using it as an excuse to brand you as a loser or outcast just because you can, say, not tie your shoes, or you make a mistake once and everybody holds it over your head for life.
[QUOTE=AlexGT;47453786]In a lot of cases it's always really unacceptable and incredibly demeaning but it depends on the person who's the subject of the humor. I don't think this is a good example, but my friend and I always go back and forth at each other with pointless slurs and etcetera. All in all though, I'd draw the line at genuinely demeaning someone for a characteristic they feel bad about. I've been around people who do that to others, friends of theirs, so on and so forth, and it always sort of leaves you feeling like shit.[/QUOTE] To be honest I'd probably just draw the line at personal issues altogether. As with most people in this thread I only do it with really close friends, we do it a lot but it's always meaningless stuff. If someone is clearly not proud of something like a rocky relationship or maybe bad grades then that's an obvious line to never cross. It's hard though sometimes. I've had a friend once say shit to me and I thought they were being serious due to their nature and then he said "I was only being semi-serious". It wasn't like "you're a gay cunt" or whatever, it was personalized insults that were pretty harmful.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7CPqZO_IDU[/media] I personally don't see the problem with this sort of joke, this is the absolute borderline for aggressive humour that mocks people [quote=Frankie Boyle]‘Apparently Jordan and Peter Andre are fighting each other over custody of Harvey, well eventually one of them’ll lose and have to keep him. I have a theory that Jordan married a cage fighter cause she needed someone strong enough to stop Harvey from f***ing her.’[/quote] For context Harvey is disabled and Jordan/Peter Andre are his parents. I find this sort of joke unacceptable because of the depth the personal attack here goes, and the representation it gives of disabled people is pretty despicable as well.
I like Aggressive humor, but I know when to limit it. With time you learn who can handle it and who can't. I like it, but I know my limits. I know what I can joke about and what can't be mentioned. [editline]6th April 2015[/editline] Basically, I use aggressive humor, but only after I know how well the other people around me will take it.
I don't draw the line, and that's why my mother hates me.
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