One of the things I love about moderating comments is that I can filter out the cowards. No name? Sorry-- comment won't appear.
The deleted comment in question was about the previous "100 Below," in which this commenter took me to be joking about rape. To question the post is fine; to question it snottily is not.
It's a legitimate question, though, so I'll address it here.
To my anonymous coward: Wake up! There's a lot that's not funny in the world. Setting fire to someone's house, for instance, or shooting someone in the head, or eating a baby. I've probably written material along those lines on this blog more than once, and up to now, people with no sense of humor have seen fit not to send me any complaints by email, consistent with the Too Lazy or Cowardly to Email Law. Now that comments are back in place, the cyber-Gollums are back to skulking.
Taking a situation and making it ridiculous is one way to explore the un-PC. As I mentioned in my post about potentially racist remarks, context matters. How else can a comedian get away with telling the jokes he does?
The situation in the previous "100 Below" involved an alien. If I were simply going for human-on-human raunch, do you think I'd have taken that approach? Sorry, but there are some instances in which the shocking or the horrifying can also be funny. I laugh like a fool at prison rape jokes, for example, even though that shit is no laughing matter for a dude who's being reamed by twelve guys in the shower. In fact, I'll just go out on a limb and say that anything is potentially funny, no matter how grave the issue.
By my anonymous commenter's reckoning, I'd best avoid alien anal probe humor as well. Come to think of it, let's just not hurt anybody's feelings! Here's a flower.
I'd have more respect for this person if she had the guts to use a name.
_
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
heh
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3 comments:
Dearest Kevin,
Anyone who visits your site with any regularity will recocgnize that you have a twisted sense of what's funny. I think your Anon commenter just wanted you to try to be more sensitive toward the feelings of your readers.
I wasn't going to bring this up, because it's very painful for me, but I am part of a large world-wide support group for people that have been beamed up and anally probed by aliens.
Every time I come across someone who is joking about this matter on the internet, I'm thrown back into a fit of terrified panic - and I end up quivering in a fetal position on the floor for a couple hours. It's all I can do to climb back up into my chair and "x" the offensive website away.
So, while the thought of an alien with a strap-on might be hee-lay-ree-us for you, please keep in mind the thousands of millions of people, people like me, who have had their backdoors ransacked by globby, smelly, one-eyed extraterrestial beings.
(The same goes for victims of arson, people who've been shot in the head, or those blessed little angel babies that've been eaten by people. Those wee cherubs don't deserve your ire, sir!)
I've got to go. I've dropped my soap and I think I hear a spaceship nearby.
I'm censoring my response here, but be that as it may... this is your blog, a place for you to post your views... or anything you so choose. If someone doesn't like it, they can click "next blog."
You have no one to answer to but yourself. It's not like we have to sit here and PAY to read your blog.
I'll do ya one better... just direct folks (who are peeved at your content) to the festive sphincter icon on my sidebar, and tell them to click it frequently.
I appreciate the sentiments, ladies.
Most humbly,
Kevin
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