More reflections on Laci Green’s sense of humor

My comic strip on the matter is by far the only commentary out there on Laci Green’s video on what constitutes humor [link]. In this post you will find a bunch of videos on the topic that might give you a bit more insight into the matter. It should come as no surprise that someone that keeps playing the “offended”-card will piss off a lot of people that values the freedoms of the western society; pesky little things such as the right to free speech.

To quote some wise men on the importance of free speech (as it turns out, finding quotes by women on the matter was harder than expected):

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” – George Orwell

“I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an ass of yourself.” – Oscar Wilde

“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” – George Washington

What Laci doesn’t get is, uh, where to start… First of all, humor is objective; not everybody laughs at the same thing. Secondly, the fact that people laugh at a rape-joke don’t turn them into rapists, just like laughing at someone else’s misfortune doesn’t breed psychopaths. In many cases, humor is a way for people to distance themselves from painful or difficult situations, take for example Mike Birbiglia[link] who in front of a laughing crowd tells the story about how he sleepwalked, dove through the closed window of his hotel room on the second floor, and the embarrassing aftermath that ensued. Sharing his story is a way for him to deal with it all. However, if we judge him by Laci’s ruler he would be jailed and fined.

Laci; if you don’t find it funny, don’t laugh. But you have no right to tell other people what is funny or not. Because after all, IT IS JUST A JOKE.

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