When do jokes about disability stop being funny?

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Jokes about disability are not inherently offensive.

I think that humour has to be mildly offensive or at least topical, it breaks the tension between social groups in such as PC society and says it's okay to laugh at taboo subjects, when we laugh at an offensive joke it's a natural response to a topic that makes us nervous. We feel free to laugh because it's the comedian who is being offensive...or if talking about jokes on disability if the comedian is disabled it makes us feel all the more okay about laughing. I think comedy in this way can break-down boundaries and help promote understanding.

BUT - at what point does it just stop being funny?

Say comedian's like Frankie Boyle who just seem to be offensive for the sake of it, or I'm sure many people find uncyclopedia's entry on Asperger's offensive to the point of not being funny...even potentially perpetuating myths, ignorance or intolerance towards aspies.

If friends or people around you joke about asperger's or autism...at what point do you object?

I think when people start making fun of the person about their disability to make them feel bad and to humiliate them.

I suppose if you start taking the same tone against people about one of their faults and they start getting offended and you tell them that "it's just a joke, like yours".

When people start to make fun of a person due to the nature of their disability.

I would object if the joke was at the expense of a named individual or group. I quite often laugh at generalised jokes about Tourettes! Change that joke to me though and grr.. >:(

Depends on the specific situation.

Frankie Boyle ridicules a specific child, because his mother is in the public eye. This is cowardly and not funny.

A CPN who works at the care farm I go to, where there are people with a range of disabilities, made a joke about autism. I didn't find this funny, as he had a responsibility of care to the people around him, who may have been offended or upset, but were unable to verbalise their offence.

Anyone who is making fun of specific people, or a group of people, when they are in a position of power over that person or group: not funny.

Making fun of any group generally where the difference in power between the two parties is quite large is generally not funny.


Jokes within a group of people of similar standing, or who know each other well, that may be self deprecating, or observation, can be funny.


But a lot of it is dependant on an individual's perspective, so I don't think there are any hard and fast rules. Plus my sense of humour is quite narrow, and others will almost certainly disagree with me.

I think jokes about physical disabilities are less offensive, because we can all understand just how real and how difficult it must be to live with, so there's a modicum of sympathy inherent in the subject itself and the joke becomes about the difficulty or awkwardness of the condition more than a single person.

When you make jokes about a neurological disorder, you're making fun of an individual's personality, not their wooden leg. Because of that, I don't feel anybody who doesn't have AS has a right to make jokes about it, because they can't possibly imagine what its like to live with it. It becomes a personal insult, not a general gag.

I'm not offended when someone tells a blonde joke (not that that's a real handicap), but it's generic and essentially meaningless, not really personal to me as a blonde individual. When someone makes stereotyped insults about AS, who hasn't lived through the persecution of being perceived as weird and different, or had the difficulties of trying to survive without normal social skills, that's offensive, because they have no idea what they're ridiculing (and don't care), so its just another form of bullying.

The success of a joke is largely dependent on the punchline, which sums up the tone of what the audience is supposed to laugh at. I've written many jokes about rape for my stand-up, but the point to laugh at isn't the actual act of rape itself, because that isn't funny. I wrote one about how despite my general creepiness, I could never be a rapist because my social skills are too bad. If the joke were to be about rape itself, I would probably mention how stupid it is to go right to the sex. "What about the foreplay, buddy? No wonder women don't want to sleep with you" But I'm not sure how to tread the ground of the actual act because it's really tough to do.

My friend in a wheelchair was doing an open mic, and as he went on stage, I cheered for him and yelled "Yeah! Break a leg!" He looked at me, and the audience nervously laughed. He said "Yeah, I will. Wait for me out back when the show is over." and the audience cheered. After he was done, he was voted in the top 3. He didn't win though, but I helped get him over. Now, if I yelled "Break an arm!" that would be different.

It really does not bother me humour is humour, now if someone is saying something just to try and cause pain to someone else then of course that's not the right thing to do but making a joke that happens to offend a few people is not the same thing as that.

My issue with a lot of this humor is that it is typically aimed at marginalized groups. Not all of it - see Louis CK's routine about white people or Stewart Lee on political correctness - but usually, if there is humor about a group of people, it's aimed at people who are already getting the short end of the stick in some way.

WTF?! Creeps with poor social skills can and have raped before.

I guess humour about psychological issues does not bother me........I mean I think it was George Carlin one of my favorite comedians, I was watching make suicide jokes and I found it hilarious even though I have attempted in the past. With me humour is usually funny because it's true in a sick twisted way sometimes but still.

I think the uncyclopedia page about aspergers is pretty funny, I just read it for the first time. It took some insight to make most of those jokes.

Comedic minds are modern philosopher's, since you can't call yourself a philosopher anymore unless you teach it. They show absurdities and insightful views into their minds and their view of the world. Even when they are talking about disabilities. I despise 4chan and the mindless s**t that goes on there as a whole, but with that collective mindset they are all in, like many claiming to be individuals, they come up with some funny stuff.

I think it's wrong when they are direct, and the only purpose is to humiliate someone in a weaker state. Usually to make the person telling the joke look stronger. This is deeply at the core of our primitive behavior and will never go away, it's best to learn to deal with it.

On another note, I think this behavior is getting worse quickly because of the modern internet culture.

Are you blonde?

How does this question relate to the subject?

The question wasn't meant literally. From your response, I can tell your perception/interpretations are autistic in nature, so I'm guessing that's why you didn't get Mindslave's joke. If you'd like further explanation of his joke or my question's meaning, let me know.