Old jokes to some aren’t jokes at all these days. Its not just Lenny Bruce or George Carlin who are awful, but the same banal old jokes that, to those who either never heard them or just love being outraged, evoke outrage. Dirty old man? Ladies’ Lingerie? Outrageous!!!
You don’t find it funny? Fair enough. Nobody can make you find something amusing if you don’t want to, and you’re entitled to not find something funny any damn time you want. So don’t laugh. Or if it offends you, say it. Go ahead, say it.
David Edelstein made a joke after the death of Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci about his movie, Last Tango in Paris, and some not only didn’t find it funny, but as is their wont, were outraged.
Edelstein has been silent on Facebook the last few days. Until this week he held two of the most prestigious paying gigs in the ever-shrinking world of film criticism, at New York magazine and NPR’s “Fresh Air.” Now he has himself become the subject of widespread debate and discussion on social media, not to mention in the real world. This happened after he posted (and rapidly deleted) a tasteless joke in response to the recent death of legendary Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci. “Even grief goes better with butter,” Edelstein wrote, alongside an image from the famous, or infamous, scene in Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris” in which Marlon Brando’s character uses butter as a lubricant while having anal sex with the character played by Maria Schneider.
Whether a joke is tasteless is a matter of, well, taste. So Edelstein’s joke didn’t suit your taste? Fair enough. Don’t laugh. But that wasn’t what came of it, because there is no offense against taste that doesn’t demand defenestration.
It wasn’t a funny joke. Edelstein quickly retracted it and apologized. But it was too late. People howled for his firing. Actress Martha Plimpton, repeating a false claim that actress Maria Schneider was actually raped by Brando in this scene, demanded Epstein’s head. Fresh Air, hosted by the insufferable Terry Gross, cut Edelstein loose immediately. All his years of contributing to the show meant nothing. No word yet from New York on what it will do, or from CBS.
There are words immediately launched to turn everything into the end of the world. Did this joke encourage, or apologize, or erase, or empower, or marginalize, or traumatize, or re-traumatize, or whatever vagary one prefers, rape? Or was it just a joke?
Even at Salon, Andrew O’Hehir can’t bring himself to demand Edelstein’s burning at the stake, though as might be expected, he similarly lacks the guts to call bullshit on bullshit.
Is any of that fair or reasonable? Is an intelligent, funny writer who has seen every major movie made since the birth of the medium, who has never been afraid of offering his own irascible opinions, being sacrificed on the altar of SJW sensitivity? Or was all of this just the inexorable turning of history’s wheel, which will grind us all to dust sooner or later?
Hell, I really don’t know.
Ah, cowardice at the intersection of intellectual dishonesty and fear of being burned at the stake yourself for the heresy of not being outraged whenever the mob tells you to. Could he not muster enough strength to “really know”? Feh,
There is a theme here, as the jokes are familiar to “olds,” who don’t seem to grasp that the youth neither know nor care that these are just jokes.
When the generations clash, the older generation generally retreats. Nobody wants to be hated and declared a moral pariah by his or her employees. Nobody wants to seem outdated. If the war is between the left and Trumpian white nationalism, nobody wants to be seen siding with Trump.
Plus, the militants have more conviction. In the age of social media, virtue is not defined by how compassionately you act. Virtue is defined by how vehemently you react to that which you find offensive. Virtue involves the self-display of a certain indignant sensibility, and anybody who doesn’t display that sensibility is morally suspect.
What’s obviously just a joke, whether you find it funny or awful, is still just a joke, at least to the “older generation.” But to the young on social media, it’s a cause that demands extreme retribution, for let no “tasteless” joke go unpunished.
There used to be a concept called “gallows humor,” jokes about grim, often hopeless, situations that made them more tolerable through laughter so that people could endure rather than give up hope. But this was a “thing” before people preferred their hopelessness and outrage to laughter in the face of desperate circumstances. Now, it’s all gallows, no humor.
Is that the world you really desire, one filled with fear and loathing, a future of wallowing in misery awaiting the next old fool who utters something you can hate him for?
I didn’t find David Edelstein’s joke particularly funny. I wouldn’t retell it at parties to demonstrate my wittiness. But it’s just a joke, which is a thing that us olds used to laugh about on occasion back in the olde days, but died when the woke found them too traumatic.
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Some funnies are still allowed.
Clearly, the posting of this video cements your reputation as a shitlord. 🙂
As if I needed confirmation.
I’m confused. Where’s the funny in that?
A judge, old guy and rabbi go to a whorehouse. . . .
Wait! This is the worst thing and must be addressed. Judges are unnecessary when everyone knows if someone is guilty. Judges have no reason to be, so they should be banned. No statement, even if it is a joke, should include a non-person.
Old guys caused all the bad things in the world. They caused our misery! They aren’t funny. Whoever wrote this should be run over by scooters for even thinking this is funny and provoking the memory of old guys.
Rabbi? Why are rabbis always in jokes? What’s so special about them? Who elevated them to kings of comedy? This is complete racism!
What’s a whorehouse?
The aristocrats.
Dark humor is like food, SHG.
Not everyone gets it.
That one should always be accompanied by a picture of Stalin.
David Edelstein came under fire by various champions of woke for his meh-to-unfavorable review of Wonder Woman. Edelstein defended himself in a follow-up article criticizing his critics for using out-of-context quotes and uncharitable assumptions of his word choice to portray his review as loaded with sexism (it wasn’t). He even went a step further and explained that he understood that, for his critics, the film was important. But a film can be both important and bad.
So which situation is worse: (a) Edelstein being unfairly targeted again after fighting back for being unfairly targeted; or (b) Edelstein being randomly and unfairly targeted? I’m honestly not sure.
Focus.
Dude, you’ve made almost every mistake a noob commenting here can make. Chill out. And as SHG says, focus.
Hey, I’m just glad SHG lets me post comments without my helmet on!
For now.
Vice news took their own run at inappropriate humor with their video titled ‘Inside Veteran TV’s Dark and Controversial Humor’. As Vet TV demonstrates with their ‘Night Terror Neck Brace’ skit, there’s a substantial and young audience that still appreciates gallows humor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG2ffFve-v4
At the end of their cringey examination, Vice wisely withholds their condemnation of the terrible humor they had uncovered. I expect it was a combination of an uncertain victim status of the largely veteran audience, in conjunction with saving their fire for a target that might actually be wounded by their scorn.
Bear in mind, being “inappropriate” doesn’t make it actually funny.
PERSON: You know, simply by having listened to you, your question makes me feel judged. This exercise of white male privilege has triggered me in ways I can’t even describe. I can’t feed the symptoms of your disease of Caucasian nationalism any longer. And don’t you even think about saying anything — Excuse me!! Excuse me!! *You* don’t say anything! This is no longer about you. It’s about your oppressiveness and how you crush the life out of everything. People. The Earth. It’s trees and animals. You have no respect for life, and so have to be removed from having any effect on culture or society, so that true humans can live life and breathe free and live freely. In life. You should be ashamed of the sickening thing you are, and be punished.
COUNTERPERSON: So… you do want fries? Or you don’t want fries?
“Old jokes to some aren’t jokes at all these days.”
LOL Ya, like:
You’re so old when you invited the contractor over to estimate a bathroom remodel and he asked “How’s ya plumbing” you replied: “Not too bad. I’ve only wet myself twice this week.”
or
Your so old when Mrs. SJ asked you to come upstairs and make love you said: “Honey, have mercy! I can only do one!”
Not the kind of old jokes you’re talking about? OK, how about an old joke:
Who Is the Greatest Chicken-killer in Shakespeare? Macbeth, because he did murder most foul.
Not specific enough for this audience? Fine! Here’s an old lawyer joke:
In ancient Greece, Diogenes of Sinope once took a lantern and said he was going in search of an honest lawyer. “How’s it going?” he was asked the following day. “Not too bad” Diogenes replied, “I still have my lantern.”
STILL NOT SPECIFIC ENOUGH? Here’s an old joke about criminal justice:
What Is the Difference Between Stabbing a Man and Killing a Hog? One is assaulting with intent to kill; the other is killing with intent to salt.
I’ll show myself the door…
You’re a very funny guy. I’m not at all surprised. Here’s one:
How do you make a tissue dance? Put a little buggie into it!
The kids love that one. They laugh and laugh.
I. Am. Humbled. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. (h/t Socrates).
These two guys at work one day, one says, “you seem awful happy today, what’d you do last night?” Other guy says, “Well, I was walking down by the railyard last night, and found a girl tied up next to the tracks. Took her back to my place and had sex with her all night.” First guy says, “Man, that’s awesome! Did, uh . . . did you get a blow job, too?” Other guy says, “No I . . . couldn’t find . . . the head.”
This joke might be deemed problematic. (Note, this “mb” is not Mark Bennett.)