One of the great things about comedy, to me and maybe to no one else, is that it uses humor to start a dialogue. I mean, yes, some things are just funny and that's it. But comedy also often gets people (and The Media, trademark symbol) talking about and thinking about WHY certain things are considered offensive or impolite or taboo.
I think there's also an important difference between a joke that is, for example, racist and a joke that is about racism. Both can be funny, yes, and it's totally possible to be offended and entertained at the same time, but it's nice to be able to sit back and think to oneself "Why did that joke bother me?" or "Why am I laughing at this?"
Plus, I think that a joke, even a funny joke, can lose its impact when it appears that a comedian is trying to be offensive in order to simply offend, without providing any additional insight or commentary or point of view.
"Mong" has racial implications that the other words do not. Although I'm sure the degree to which calling someone a "mong" or "mongoloid" is ok versus calling someone an idiot or moron or even "a retard" varies from person to person.
I had a friend whose sister was mentally... see, now, I don't even know what word we're all using these days.. and she would always refer to people and actions as "SO RETARDED!" But I can't, because I feel like it just makes people cringe too much to pay attention to whatever it was I was talking about. (Ice cream, probably. Or Katherine Chloe Cahoon.)
Oh, K-Chlo-Cah. I sincerely hope you bring a friend and one of those little pepper spray keychains with you when you're off meeting bare chested, over-eager mounds of self-tanner and hair gel that have been cobbled into something vaguely resembling Yuropean earthling men. I'm worried about you, girl!
Ugh, Anderson! Cooper! I can't call you by just one name! Oprah ALREADY did this very same thing! (The segment, not the pooping on the phone.)
And I'll remember it forever because it introduced me to the phrase "fecal matter" at a tender age and also made me afraid to ever sit on any public seat ever. You guys, good advice: Never ever wear shorts - even your finest pair of Sunday jorts - to the movies. Ever, you guys.
Mondays, amiright? lol :>)
Have a blessed weekend,
Aunt Liz
~*~*~And when there were was but one set of footsteps in the sand, it was then that Jesus rode off into the waves on a surfboard made of love, and wood.~*~*~
~*~*~"Meat. And Jesus." - Rick Perry, TX~*~*~
Yes. My inner Dance Mom noticed this as well. (As did my outer Dance Mom, if my sequined muumuu and Kate Gosselin backwards-mullet are anything to go by.)
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