People not realizing that even "jokes" have consequences

[gremcint]

The onion thread in social woes reminded me of a couple events from high school (almost half my life ago now.) There was an electronic sign inside the school that the student council had reign over for events and stuff. The guy in charge thought it would be funny to have it say "there is a bomb in this sign. no there isn't" when the principal saw he got expelled.

In a class with a large percentage of immature students at the end of their presentation for an assignment they decided to have the final slide say "(name) likes dirty little boys" and they complained about how they got suspended.


I know these are teenagers but wise the hell up.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Yeah. Saying "it's just a joke" does not magically make anything you say completely OKAY.

Bullies use this excuse a lot. Or the excuse of "You have to grow a thicker skin."

No, people don't need to grow thicker skins, you need to grow up.

Tosh 2.0 (who, IMHO, is not funny anyway) got into a lot of hot water after he made a rape joke. Penny Arcade also got into a whole war after they made a comic with the mention of rape in it, then made fun of the people who e-mailed them saying they felt that was inappropriate. Of course, they only tried to stop the war after they and their families were being threatened, which only occurred in response to the other side getting threatened (with rape, isn't that FUNNY!?)

It's not. Joke about it in private where people share your sense of humor and know you. Do not do it in public. It's classless, tasteless, and just shows you've got no sense of empathy.

(General "you")

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

On the flip side and playing a little bit of devil's advocate here...there is the other side of the coin to consider.

That what is no longer considered a joke in today's society was once considered a harmless jape as recently as 9/10/2001.

We have had children who thought they cute by saying "Bye Bye Airplane" to the other aircraft queued up on the tarmac as they were getting ready to take off only to be tossed off the plane for their behavior.

The child in question was a toddler.

And even not taking that as an extreme, there used to be a time when you could say things like "Afleck was the bomb in Phantoms Yo!" (to quote Jay and Silent Bob) and no one would bat an eye. Now refer to a low quality airport restaurant as a "Belly Bomber" and you're likely to be looking at the wrong end of a hell of a lot guns in the hands of the Airport Security with the TSA screaming in the background "Get that terrorist!"

I do agree that some humor subjects are and have always been in poor taste and should be kept private (like rape humor), but there are a lot of cases where we seem to have no tolerance for *anything* humorous anymore.

[TheHuckster]

And even not taking that as an extreme, there used to be a time when you could say things like "Afleck was the bomb in Phantoms Yo!" (to quote Jay and Silent Bob) and no one would bat an eye. Now refer to a low quality airport restaurant as a "Belly Bomber" and you're likely to be looking at the wrong end of a hell of a lot guns in the hands of the Airport Security with the TSA screaming in the background "Get that terrorist!"

I should note that these things were taken seriously before 9/11. This scene was done in 2000.

Yes, it wasn't on the level of toddlers getting their family kicked off of an airplane or getting arrested for saying something that even remotely sounds like "bomb" but you did have to be careful with what you said at the airport or in an airplane.

[guywithashovel]

I don't know if this quite fits with this thread, but a similar peeve of mine is when people feel the need to constantly make jokes of a sexual/perverted nature. That is, nearly every other thing that comes out of their mouth is a snide or cheeky remark about "pussy" or "cocks" or "blow jobs" or whatever sexually rakish subjects are coursing through their minds. What's worse, these types of people seem especially motivated to do this around me, if for no other reason than to see what my reaction will be. I guess I just appear very andrygonous or asexual, and they feel the need to "introduce" me to their special libertine world of coitus.

[TheHuckster]

I don't know if this quite fits with this thread, but a similar peeve of mine is when people feel the need to constantly make jokes of a sexual/perverted nature. That is, nearly every other thing that comes out of their mouth is a snide or cheeky remark about "pussy" or "cocks" or "blow jobs" or whatever sexually rakish subjects are coursing through their minds. What's worse, these types of people seem especially motivated to do this around me, if for no other reason than to see what my reaction will be. I guess I just appear very andrygonous or asexual, and they feel the need to "introduce" me to their special libertine world of coitus.

"That's what she said" has to die. In the very beginning, which was eons ago, there were maybe a few clever ones where I actually laughed. I don't think I've done that since 2005.

[Nyoibo]

"That's what she said" is reserved for a couple of friends who have the same warped sense of humour and my partner, she's usually the one who says them.

[blas87]

I posted on CS one time, one of my whiney bitch coworkers thought it'd be funny to not tell the shift lead that he'd be leaving early that night, so he acted like he was going to break but just left. Then texted me how funny it was that they were probably wondering where he was.

[bara]

The phrase 'its just a joke' is often used by those who had full knowledge that their actions were hurtful before they said them. Not always... but often.
Bullying in any form is never 'just a joke'.

[Gravekeeper]

Penny Arcade also got into a whole war after they made a comic with the mention of rape in it, then made fun of the people who e-mailed them saying they felt that was inappropriate. Of course, they only tried to stop the war after they and their families were being threatened, which only occurred in response to the other side getting threatened (with rape, isn't that FUNNY!?)

Ah yes, the dick wolves. Actually it wasn't the comic that caused the problem, it was months later when they made the Dickwolves t-shirt. Also it was much longer, deeper and more involved than that and spanned months. The whole thing was a messy affair and it was not clear cut black and white, nor did the two sides split down the middle along gender lines. Also, PA removed the t-shirt months before anyone started threatening their families. So you're wrong there.

It was, if nothing else, a pretty ugly display of how terrible people on the Internet are. As it was by and large the supporters of both camps rather than the leaders who were doing all of the horrific things. The leaders of both camps so to speak, reached a relative truce a month or so after the controvesy began when they took the shirts down. It was everyone else supporting them that kept the really ugly shit going for months afterwards that led to the threats, etc

Gabe certainly didn't help, but you pour your heart into a comic for years on end making all sorts of dark humoured jokes about everything under the sun, then suddenly have half the Internet paint you as worse than an actual rapist out of the blue for no reason you can understand. So I can understand him coming off as an indifferent asshole at first.

[crashhelmet]

Ah yes, the dick wolves. Actually it wasn't the comic that caused the problem, it was months later when they made the Dickwolves t-shirt. Also it was much longer, deeper and more involved than that and spanned months. The whole thing was a messy affair and it was not clear cut black and white, nor did the two sides split down the middle along gender lines. Also, PA removed the t-shirt months before anyone started threatening their families. So you're wrong there.

It was, if nothing else, a pretty ugly display of how terrible people on the Internet are. As it was by and large the supporters of both camps rather than the leaders who were doing all of the horrific things. The leaders of both camps so to speak, reached a relative truce a month or so after the controvesy began when they took the shirts down. It was everyone else supporting them that kept the really ugly shit going for months afterwards that led to the threats, etc

Gabe certainly didn't help, but you pour your heart into a comic for years on end making all sorts of dark humoured jokes about everything under the sun, then suddenly have half the Internet paint you as worse than an actual rapist out of the blue for no reason you can understand. So I can understand him coming off as an indifferent asshole at first.

That whole incident was blown out of proportion by everyone involved and in my opinion was just someone looking to cause controversy.

The Tshirt looked like this

And it was based off of this comic

I know that rape isn't a subject you joke about, but it wasn't the joke in this comic. They could've replaced it with murder, torture, or anything else. People objected and people went apeshit. But GK is right. It definitely helped show the "true colors" of the Internet.

[gremcint]

Reading the comic, the comic is not making a rape joke. So much as making fun of people only doing the minimum in the game. It's about the indifference of the player's attitude.

[Ginger Tea]

Regarding PA and the forum being the cause of the most horrid actions, it's like the spoonygate incident from last year.
Spoony tweeted to Jesu Otaku about if she ever left Radio Dead Air's Nash he would be there for her, but with him sex involved tears and hand cuffs to radiators.

Now tears and bondage references do not equate rape jokes, but if you add in your mind extra context you can see that as one which is what Obsurus Lupa did months later, JO nor Nash really commented on the originial tweet, but OL eventually took offence and called it a rape joke, I don't recall the exact wording, but I'm sure it would only be implied if you wanted it to be.

There was alot of tweetes between the two that were later deleted but both her and spoony's fan's took it even further and spoony's have been aleged to be a bit too virtriolic (if thats the right word) and fanned the fires for a very long time, most believing OL to be the reason he left TGWTG.com, but he said it was a long time comming due to his health and other issues, but it was punctuated after his resignation by this.

If OL really hated rape jokes, how come she never called out any one else from TGWTG who made rape jokes, Diamanda Hagan has a "take a shot" meme and makes far more 'offencive' sex jokes, and Jew Warrio (scripted by Hagan or adlibed) made a similar comment to spoony's about having Mars Girl tied up in the next room.
In character it was Hagan in a quantum leap skit finding herself in JW body and he not Hagan being the cause of Mars' predicament.
Shit's given by Lupa? None.

There is more shit flnging about spoonygate, but I kept out of it, not even posting about it here as I didn't know if I should bring it up as it got older and older news, but it seemed fitting after the PA post.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Also, PA removed the t-shirt months before anyone started threatening their families. So you're wrong there.

That's not what I was referring to (AKA the shirt being pulled off.) People were threatening one side with rape, and the PA people did nothing to try to stop them. They pulled the "We aren't encouraging them to do this, they are doing it all on their own" card, and it wasn't until after the PA guys and their families were getting threatened did they go "Okay guys, seriously, this is going to far, time to stop."

People didn't paint them as assholes just for the one dick wolf comment, it was when they drew a completely different comic, publicly and blatantly insulting and ridiculing everyone who thought that use of "we get raped by dickwolves every night!" was inappropriate. That's what started the real war.

[crashhelmet]

That's not what I was referring to (AKA the shirt being pulled off.) People were threatening one side with rape, and the PA people did nothing to try to stop them. They pulled the "We aren't encouraging them to do this, they are doing it all on their own" card, and it wasn't until after the PA guys and their families were getting threatened did they go "Okay guys, seriously, this is going to far, time to stop."

People didn't paint them as assholes just for the one dick wolf comment, it was when they drew a completely different comic, publicly and blatantly insulting and ridiculing everyone who thought that use of "we get raped by dickwolves every night!" was inappropriate. That's what started the real war.

The only other comic they released about it was this one, released 2 days after the original. Again, it would be months before the shit hits the fan.

There were others that might have set people off, like this comic, but it's an edit job done by a fan. This is the original it was based off of. There were other edits floating around as well.