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From: jkr@gitpyr.UUCP (J. Kenneth Riviere)
Newsgroups: net.jokes.d,net.women
Subject: Re: Offensive humor
Message-ID: <1335@gitpyr.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Feb-86 08:47:59 EST
Article-I.D.: gitpyr.1335
Posted: Wed Feb  5 08:47:59 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Feb-86 06:06:47 EST
References: <428@mmm.UUCP> <9096@amdcad.UUCP>
Reply-To: jkr@gitpyr.UUCP (J. Kenneth Riviere)
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Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
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Summary: Puns are inoffensive humor.

Phil Ngai writes:
>Michael Ross writes:
>>	The question: Are ALL jokes offensive in SOME way to SOMEone?
>
>Yes, there are plenty of jokes which are inoffensive. Here's three
>(possibly old ones)
>
>1) A woman dreamt she was talking to God when He sneezed.
>She didn't know what to say to that. (I didn't get it until
>I thought of the usual response to a sneeze: God bless you?)
>
>2) Two crazy people are talking to each other. One asks "Are you
>a Giant fan?" The other replies "No, I'm an airconditioner".
>
>3) It's been discovered that you can get a disease from kissing birds
>called Chirpes. But don't worry, it's tweetable.
>
> Phil Ngai +1 408 749 5720

I would argue that all of these could be construed as offensive to someone.
The first might upset a religious person (implying that God might have a need
to sneeze could suggest a somewhat less than perfect being), the second could
be construed as being derogatory to people with mental problems,  the third
is a terrible pun which offends many people (that is the point of the joke,
isn't it?  Isn't it supposed to be a pun on the Tweetie Bird cartoon 
character's name?).  Which brings me to the point which prompted me to post
this article:  why are puns considered to be offensive?  I have come to the
conclusion that puns are considered painful to the listeners since there is
at least a subconsious understanding that there cannot be humor unless it
involves pain for someone.  Since puns do not explicitly degrade, insult, or
otherwise hurt anyone the pain involved must be experienced by the listeners.
Just a thought.
 
-- 
J. Kenneth Riviere   (JoKeR)
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!jkr
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