Joke's on those who joke about Japan

[Bluebear]

Nothing like a staggering natural disaster to bring out mankind's ... worst? While the crisis gripping Japan has tugged on hearts and wallets, it also has drawn cracks from cultural figures that redefine insensitivity:

• Comic Gilbert Gottfried was fired Monday as the voice of insurance giant Aflac after tweeting jokes such as "They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them."

• Family Guywriter Alec Sulkin tweeted that feeling better about the quake was just a matter of Googling "Pearl Harbor death toll." Almost 2,500 died in that 1941 attack; more than 10,000 are feared dead in Japan.

• Rapper 50 Cent joked that the quake forced him to relocate "all my hoes from L.A., Hawaii and Japan." He tweeted in apology: "Some of my tweets are ignorant I do it for shock value."...

"People died here — it's something your parents should have taught you never to make fun of," says Teja Arboleda, a former comedian and founder of Entertaining Diversity, which advises companies on diversity questions. "There's humor that helps us through a tragedy, and humor where you kick people when they're down. There's no reason for the latter."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2011-03-16-sickjokes16_ST_N.htm

[villager]

1. Yeah, well the constantly-protected Rush gets away with his hate speech

n/t

[Tx4obama]

2. Haley Barbour Press Secretary Resigned After Japan E-Mail Joke

Haley Barbour Press Secretary Dan Turner Resigns After Japan Joke
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/14/haley-barbour-press-secre_n_835737.html

[GatesofPunk]

3. Just sad

Is that what we have come to as a society? Making jokes about the death of thousands?

[Newest Reality]

5. Corporations and governments have made

a business of the death of millions over decades and centuries and that has been so downplayed that is as good as a joke as those polices continue to this day. Yet, those deaths and tragedies are real and undeniable and continue onward in a massive manufacturing of total denial to the point that people think something is new.

Why are you surprised?

[GatesofPunk]

9. Not surprised in the least nt

[burrowowl]

4. And if the winds blow

the radiation over the USA from GE Designed reactors, the "joke" will really be on us!

[Journeyman]

6. Lenny Bruce once remarked that satire is "tragedy plus time". . .

too many today, in the immediate environment of modern communication, forget to account for the second half of his comedic equation.

[Johonny]

14. I agree

but I think people also live at different speeds. Me I'm ok with this humor. Dark humor got me through the Bush administration. Lenny Bruce would point out some people are never going to like your material.

[MellowDem]

7. It's nothing new... except for the media part of it...

People have been making morbid jokes to cope for a long time now. It used to be just with the people you know and who know you, but now with Twitter and whatnot, some less than tactful souls have decided to post these morbid jokes for all the world, where there will be widespread offense taken.

People who did this after 9/11 were lambasted as well. I remember Bill Maher losing his show over some snark about how our soldiers fight or what have you.

It can be a hard thing to judge for the "too soon" syndrome I suppose.

Personally, I use morbid jokes all the time, but in the correct context. Hell, in some lines of work, it's needed. But compared to our already "squeaky clean" presentation MSM media and the way the world is presented in a rather stodgy, stuffy way, such jokes stand out in contrast.

What gets me is the outrage over morbid jokes, and the lack of outrage over much worse (real) things by our wonderful MSM. Hard for me to get too worked up about the morbid jokes or even really care or feel angry about it.

What a diversity advisor has anything to do with morbid jokes kinda stumps me. Really, the whole idea of "diversity advisors" just seems so corporate, fake, and plastic. Hell, now I'm more pissed at the idea of diversity advisors than these morbid jokes.

[TK421]

8. I don't understand the jokes about this...what is so fucking funny about it?

I don't give a flying fuck if you're a comedian or a washed-up rapper...disaster like this is nothing to joke about

It's moments like this that really make me fucking hate people in general..and I say in general because there are always people like this around

I can't seperate them from everyone else...they're just.....THERE

[Skittles]

10. I don't get it either

I understand gallows humor of first responders but from people living in safety? NO

[TK421]

12. and the situation would be VERY different if someone they loved lived there

know what I mean, Skittles? Only when it hits home is when it is not funny

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Actually as a former first responder

I can tell you the jokes also fly if it is somebody close.

It is how people deal with it.

Me... my gallows humors have stayed away from the less sensitivity issues but trust me, knowing a little about this... has thrown my gallows off the scale

[TK421]

22. gallows humor aside, there is a certain time and place for it

right now is not the time for it..those people must be going through hell there right now, not knowing what the fuck is going on with those reactors there

I'm hearing different stories every day about which reactor is doing what...I don't even know what the fuck to believe anymore

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. Actually as I used to tell my kids

it IS the moment for gallows, but... keep it away from polite company.

[anneboleyn]

15. This is my issue -- I see a fundamental lack of empathy to begin with

from some people, who then think little of joking about thousands of dead in a place that seems far away to them. To me, it seems like we could use more empathy in general.

[gratuitous]

13. I like my humor to afflict the comfortable

Millions of people homeless, cities in shambles, thousands dead, and thousands more facing some pretty grim prospects over the next couple of weeks? No, not really a fit subject for humor, especially from several thousand miles away from an overpampered, overpaid entertainer whose toughest job in the last decade is providing a voice for a duck on a commercial. Right now, it's time to comfort the afflicted.

[anneboleyn]

17. Best response I've read in a long time. And right to the point. Pampered rich people

making nasty jokes about dying Japanese farmers, children, disabled (I saw the story of a man who desperately tried to save his wife who was confined to a wheelchair), and others just rings hollow for me. It isn't being "uptight."

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. Well that is not gallows, that is just being plain out a dick

Trust me, I know the difference.

[Trajan]

11. Gallows humor ....

I am not offended .... Yeah ... It's 'edgy', but it's mostly tame stuff ....

Gottfried needn't get fired for saying that .... but hey - I didn't hire him .... He made his dime ....

People should realize - When the shit hits the fan like it is, and people feel helpless against such immense negative power, resorting to gallows humor to lighten the spirit could save some lives by reducing stress .... Those who were killed in this awful event cannot be saved now, and the comments by one Gilbert Gottfried changes absolutely nothing ....

I understand the sensitivity, but I think this is overkill ...

[anneboleyn]

19. The guy referenced Pearl Harbor deaths so we wouldn't feel bad for the Japanese

because he felt helpless as he observed the disaster in Japan? Seems like an odd move to me.

[Bluebear]

21. Calling up Pearl Harbor to urge people not to feel bad about this is not "tame" nor "humor"

[Trajan]

25. I was referring primarily to Gottfried's comments ...

1) I cannot nor will not defend every possible statement from anybody - The world is a big place full of lots of people who say lots of things ...

2) Humor, like beauty, is in the 'eye' of the beholder ....

Lots of people hate Picasso ...

I guess my point is this > What Gottfried said was pretty damned tame .... He shouldn't have been fired ... That says nothing about anyone else ...

[SoCalDem]

16. Am I the only one who was surprised to fiind out that anyone would pay Gottfried for anything

in the first place? Aaaaaaflak..is not that hard to say in a Duck-accent.. He'll be easy enough to replace..joke's on HIM...

[okieinpain]

20. i don't get the whole pearl harbor deal. people tell blacks not

to be pissed off about slavery and jim crow laws. but oh boy pearl harbor is ok to bring up.

[Major Hogwash]

26. There's nothing funny about it -- we could've been the ones who had a nuclear accident after a quake

I guess they forgot about the nuclear reactors located in California -- California, where 100s of millions of AMERICANS live along the SAN ANDREAS FAULT!!!

I guess it's only funny if people FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY DIE!

They aren't so much insenstive azzholes, as they just don't know how to react to such terrible news.
I'm a pretty forgiving guy.
I've seen people say really fucking stupid things in a time of crisis.

But, even I was surprised to hear that Gilbert Gottfried was still being referred to as a comic.
That shit has just gotta stop.

[Raine]

27. That "joke" about Pearl Harbor is just plain ugly

and sick! x(