Disgusting insensibility

[Atoon]

I generally can stand shock stuff in comical adult cartoons, because much of the time it's somewhat surrealist, but I get truly shocked when a gag focused on the suffering of mutilation, deformation, blindness or paraplegia—and I have seen it a lot. I really don't understand how people can laugh at those stuff. Should someone explain?

[The Myst]

Because we don't have souls.

[Sharklady]

Those are absolutely not the sort of subjects everybody finds humorous (I certainly don't.)

But it seems that, for some people, it can be a coping mechanism. They deal with the fear of such things befalling them by laughing at it.

[FinnMacCool]

Because the people in the cartoons who are suffering are not real people, which means (at least if the cartoon is handling the shock humor right) we don't emathize with the fictional victims and can treat the pain they're put through the same way we treat someone slipping on a bannana peel.

[Lutochris]

Because, in today's atmosphere, with successful shows like South Park and Family Guy, most writers think that in order to compete, they basically have to be as disgustingly over the top as humanly possible. And then they make it seem like if you don't laugh at an offensive joke, then you're uncool and have no sense of humor.

[Merrick Bill]

Because, in today's atmosphere, with successful shows like South Park and Family Guy, most writers think that in order to compete, they basically have to be as disgustingly over the top as humanly possible. And then they make it seem like if you don't laugh at an offensive joke, then you're uncool and have no sense of humor.

I don't believe that's true. I know on Drawn Together, we just write what we think is funny. We never say, "we need to be more shocking or disgusting." The only criterion is funny.

Bill

[Gokou Ruri]

Because we don't have souls.

I'm going to go with this one.

[Anthonynotes]

Because, in today's atmosphere, with successful shows like South Park and Family Guy, most writers think that in order to compete, they basically have to be as disgustingly over the top as humanly possible. And then they make it seem like if you don't laugh at an offensive joke, then you're uncool and have no sense of humor.

Think it's some of the online fans (including some here), and not the writers of said shows, that make it seem like one lacks a sense of humor for not finding such jokes funny. Lost track of how many times I've seen the "you're just being politically correct" excuse dragged out for not finding such jokes funny... or such criticisms I've gotten for not thinking of "Family Guy" as funny...

[Kaoru]

I have an idea - let's all not have any fun and instead cry and feel pity.

Because we don't have souls.

That's not the reason, the reason is different amounts of various of chemicals in our brains.

[J'onn J'onzz]

Because we don't have souls.

Agreed.

[Draven]

Lisa: Tragedy is comedy, as long as it's not happening to you. Observe."
(Lisa throws her shoe at Bart)
Bart: "Ow!"
Marge: Heh heh heh (realizing) Oh my! Lisa! Go to your room!
-The Simpsons

In today's world, of daily news of death, rape, poverty, homelessness, and innocent people imprisoned for decades, it's becoming harder and harder to feel anything for those less fortunite than ourselves. It's a brutal planet, laugh at it once in awile.

[Anthonynotes]

Bart: Tragedy is comedy, as long as it's not happening to you. Observe."
(Bart throws his shoe at Lisa)
Lisa: "Ow!"
Marge: Heh heh heh (realizing) Oh my! Bart! Go to your room!
-The Simpsons

In today's world, of daily news of death, rape, poverty, homelessness, and innocent people imprisoned for decades, it's becoming harder and harder to feel anything for those less fortunite than ourselves. It's a brutal planet, laugh at it once in awile.

Actually, it was *Lisa* that said that, and threw her shoe at Bart (making Marge send her to her room)...

[Mrs._Tom_Ato]

I have an idea - let's all not have any fun and instead cry and feel pity.

Is there something wrong with having sympathy for others?


Anyway, I never even thought of these 'shock' jokes as making fun of the disabled person in question. To me it always shows the flaws and ineptitude of the people doing the ridiculing. Usually when these sorts of, "Hahahahah, you can't walk!" jokes occur it's because the person saying them is acting like a doofus. Think of the South Park episode when the quadriplegic lady was left in the middle of the road. The show was making fun of her, yes, but it was making more fun of how completely oblivious to her problem the townspeople were. She herself was not funny without the idiocy of the other South Park residents that cast her in a humorous light. I don't even consider these to be 'jokes' per se, more like humorous lessons on how not to treat such a person in real life.

[Hordesman]

I think it depends on what the creator's going for and how well it's handled.

The creators of South Park once said how the death of a child is a tragedy, but it's funny when it's just a bit of orange construction paper. He's a throwaway character in that sense, much like the guys in Speed Grapher whose heads get twisted off.

When it comes to a more dramatic show, it's about creating believable characters that the audience cares about. That means they can get hurt, killed, scarred, etc. There were spots on Gargoyles where I could see things getting much worse than they ultimately did, but the potential was always there and never shied away from.

It's very easy to distance bad guys, though, whether it's the use of robot minions in 80s toons, helmet-clad humans like in Star Wars, or the practically faceless army in Battleship Potemkin.

[Sharklady]

> ... or the practically faceless army in Battleship Potemkin. <

'Potemkin' is not, of course, the only propaganda work that ever used the hidden-face device to reduce the antagonist(s) to sub-human status. But it just might be the most classic example in cinematic history.

[Kagetsu]

I don't believe that's true. I know on Drawn Together, we just write what we think is funny. We never say, "we need to be more shocking or disgusting." The only criterion is funny.

Bill

You know, I've never seen Drawn Together because I thought it was along the line of South Park. I really don't like that kind of humour. Because of this, I'll see if I can find when it is on and give it a look.

Animation that's done right, makes me feel for the characters, or I don't care for the show.

[Merrick Bill]

You know, I've never seen Drawn Together because I thought it was along the line of South Park. I really don't like that kind of humour. Because of this, I'll see if I can find when it is on and give it a look.

Animation that's done right, makes me feel for the characters, or I don't care for the show.

It's on tonight at 10:30 on Comedy Central. But my guess is that if you don't like South Park you won't like Drawn Together. South Park makes you feel for the characters a lot more often than we do.

Bill

[Neo Ultra Mike]

I don't believe that's true. I know on Drawn Together, we just write what we think is funny. We never say, "we need to be more shocking or disgusting." The only criterion is funny.

You know that's a good point. You know hell, that's more then a good point: That's how it SHOULD be viewed really. I mean in comedy, there shouldn't be a limit on what you can do for the sake of a joke. The main point is that it should be funny; it should entertain you; it shouldn't make you feel bad for the character that gets hurt unless that's the point of the scene. I know some people have they're own personal prefrence on what sort of things they want or don't want to see in a show (I personally do not like an abudence of fart/gross out gags) but it's stuff like "I need to feel for the characters" or "this is just too awful" that places such restrictions on creators. If you don't want to watch something fine, that's your choice. But don't try and preach how wrong it is to other people or be confused how they could like that type of humor. Everyone has different things that make them laugh and if someone enjoys that type of thing and it's not hurting anyone just let them enjoy it; don't try and make them feel wrong for liking that kind of thing.
Cause it's just humor and if it's wrong to be funny then I wouldn't even want to be right.

[Ed Liu]

There needs to be a word for something that is so horribly, ludicrously, blatantly offensive that it stops being offensive and starts being funny. I tried "offensilarious" for a while, but dumped it because it was really dumb.

At heart, I think offensive humor runs parallel to the idea of violence being funny. If I say that I laugh uproariously at characters being thrown off cliffs, blown up by bombs, skinned alive, mangled by heavy farming equipment, dismembered by gunfire, burned down to skeletons by acid, and smashed in the head repeatedly by large, heavy objects, it sounds shocking. If I say I like Looney Tunes, though, then it doesn't seem so out-there any more.

The line where violence or offensiveness changes from being just violent or just offensive into being funny will change for different people. Some might question whether the line exists at all, like the well-intentioned but completely delusional people who forced edits to Bugs Bunny cartoons in the 80's. When it's good, I think South Park makes it over that line easily.

Any show that tries to cross that line always runs the risk of falling short. However, if nothing else, even if you miss that line, being offensive draws ratings, which can often be more important than being funny.

-- Ed

[Lutochris]

I don't believe that's true. I know on Drawn Together, we just write what we think is funny. We never say, "we need to be more shocking or disgusting."

Funny you should say that because precisely how I picture your writing sessions going. At least that's the sense I get when I watch the show.

When Eric Cartman says "Well, I personally wouldn't stop Hitler cause I thought he was totally awesome", it's funny because, despite being an anti-semite, I love Eric Cartman. He is an endearing and sympathetic character, like Archie Bunker.

But when Princess Clara says something insensitive about Mexicans, I don't laugh. Not because it's insensitive, but because I have no reason to laugh. Ok, so she's a racist, so what? Is that it? She's not endearing or sympathetic, she's racist just for the sake of being racist. Furthermore, you're show's cast is basically all Eric Cartmans. You have no Kyle Broflovski characters. Offensive humor isn't very funny when there's no one that gets offended.

Pointless, offensive humor can be funny, if done in a clever or creative way. Your show is just basically, "let's see how many stereotype jokes and mutilations we can cram into a half-hour". Not to mention that your entire concept has about enough creative weight to MAYBE support a recurring 5-minute "TV Funhouse" segment on SNL. Even normal reality shows are smart enough to bring in new people each season, or have a new twist. Unfortunately there's not that many kinds of different cartoon characters you can come up with to use. And there's only so many ways Clara can say "Mexicans are poor!"