Dead Baby jokes, funny or sick? [Mod note #1]

spankysue

I was on Facebook today and I saw that a lot of my friends (mostly women) were giving out about a "Dead Baby Jokes" page on there. I went to have a look on it and hardly got to see a dead baby joke as there were so many hate posts up on their page. Not picking on any fellow ladies out there but again it was mostly women posting about their outrage that such a page could exist.

Maybe it's because I don't have children but I'm not one bit outraged or offended by it. As far as I'm concerned, they're just jokes, they can't hurt anyone and they're not be taken seriously. Just because you have a dark sense of humour, are you a sicko?

The impression I got from the outraged masses on this particular page was yes, if you laugh at a dead baby joke you're a freak, paedophile, deserve to be shot (all real stuff that was posted on this page).

So, are they sick or funny? If you laugh at them, are you mentally disturbed or just not taking everything so seriously?

Mod note: NO dead baby jokes

Mint Sauce

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh2sWSVRrmo

This is going to go the route of the Pedobear thread;

Humour is subjective. Some find it funny, some don't. It doesn't necessarily mean you're a sick individual if you find dead baby jokes funny, it just means you've a different sense of humour to others.

Gee Bag

I don't see the problem with dead baby jokes, fapping at the dead baby's funeral is somewhat more questionable.

RHarrow

If we've learned anything from basically nothing but cringeworthy female comedians out there, it's that most women's sense of humour is stunted at best.

Samich

I like sickipedia

Pushtrak

Depends on the joke itself. Some are funny, some are stupid, and some go a bit far for my tastes.

spankysue

Deleted User wrote: »

This is going to go the route of the Pedobear thread;

Humour is subjective. Some find it funny, some don't. It doesn't necessarily mean you're a sick individual if you find dead baby jokes funny, it just means you've a different sense of humour to others.

That's kinda what I thought, but it doesn't seem to be the general consensus on that page.

Cheeky_gal

Someone's listening to Adrian Kennedy right now :P

Jimoslimos

Not offensive (to me anyway) but neither are they funny.

Usual 'shock' humour tripe.

spankysue

spankysue wrote: »

That's kinda what I thought, but it doesn't seem to be the general consensus on that page.

This is After Hours and this is Ireland - there very rarely is a general consensus on anything.

Pushtrak

spankysue wrote: »

That's kinda what I thought, but it doesn't seem to be the general consensus on that page.

What happens is some popular celebrity or group draws attention to the moral outrage issue of the minute, and sends the lackeys over to the source of the outrage, and you get what you saw.

leggo

The line between sick and funny depends on whether the joke is actually funny, or if it's just sick. Simple as.

The majority of people who are 'offended' by these things are people who are either:

1) bored and looking to validate their own lives by finding another 'cause' to fight for,
2) looking to convince themselves they're respectable human beings,
3) looking to score points with somebody (a politician trying to get votes, a bloke trying to impress a girl by showing how 'deep' he is),

or...

4) a combination of the above.

No humour is too far. Just make sure it's funny...or everyone will think you're looking for excuses to make dead babies seem acceptable and, thus, are just a weirdo.

spankysue

Pushtrak wrote: »

What happens is some popular celebrity or group draws attention to the moral outrage issue of the minute, and sends the lackeys over to the source of the outrage, and you get what you saw.

I bet you're right, that's what happened with vaccines... but that's another thread for another night

BehindTheScenes

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Not offensive (to me anyway) but neither are they funny.

Usual 'shock' humour tripe.

Spot on, I'm not offended either but nor do I find them funny.

spankysue

Cheeky_gal wrote: »

Someone's listening to Adrian Kennedy right now :P

Are they? I think that's good but i'm not sure because I have no idea who Adrian Kennedy is. But good for them

RHarrow

To be honest the same people getting outraged over such jokes would likely laugh at the jokes if you changed them slightly to make the baby another race than their own.

It's stupidity at its finest and is propagated by the same kind of twats that caused this:
http://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/intel/2012/04/02/02_kony-traffic.o.jpg/a_560x375.jpg

Cheeky_gal

spankysue wrote: »

Cheeky_gal wrote: »

Someone's listening to Adrian Kennedy right now :P

Are they? I think that's good but i'm not sure because I have no idea who Adrian Kennedy is. But good for them

Sorry I should have said why. He's a Dj on Fm104 and he was talking about this about 40 minutes ago

spankysue

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Not offensive (to me anyway) but neither are they funny.

Usual 'shock' humour tripe.

Some of the jokes I did find were just up there purely for shock value, not particularly funny, however I did have a good giggle at a couple of them.

spankysue

Cheeky_gal wrote: »

Sorry I should have said why. He's a Dj on Fm104 and he was talking about this about 40 minutes ago

Ah right, I get things...finally, when someone explains it to me and uses diagrams

spankysue

RHarrow wrote: »

To be honest the same people getting outraged over such jokes would likely laugh at the jokes if you changed them slightly to make the baby another race than their own.

It's stupidity at its finest and is propagated by the same kind of twats that caused this:
http://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/intel/2012/04/02/02_kony-traffic.o.jpg/a_560x375.jpg

I'd say you're right there, there was a LOT of racist abuse going on on the page.

Oh god, I'd actually forgotten about that Kony sh1te, did they really all think that changing their profile picture to his picture was going to get him captured?

That kind of stupidity really pisses me off on Facebook, cancer can't be cured by "liking" a picture, animal abuse cannot be stopped by sharing a photo of a battered animal. They need to get a grip.

TeddyTedson

I don't think I really ever hear "dead baby jokes". But while I imagine they can be funny, it's shock humor, which in general tends to be overly obvious and just plain ****e. Not to mention the bad taste and all.

smokedeels

Lazy shock humour, like Jade Goody or Pheado jokes. Harmless fun but a little tiresome.

I find the notion of being offended by them strange, the content of the jokes tends to be fantastical and they rarely reference common deaths. Apologies if somebody here lost a young family member to a blender.

spankysue

TeddyTedson wrote: »

I don't think I really ever hear "dead baby jokes". But while I imagine they can be funny, it's shock humor, which in general tends to be overly obvious and just plain ****e. Not to mention the bad taste and all.

You should watch some of Frankie Boyle's stand up Teddy, you'll hear plenty of them

Some of them were actually funny, felt a little bit guilty for laughing at some but then I remembered that I wasn't actually hurting any kids by just having a chuckle.

The first 2 I heard when I was 13 were funny, they all got a little same-y after that.

garv123

leggo wrote: »

The line between sick and funny depends on whether the joke is actually funny, or if it's just sick. Simple as.

The majority of people who are 'offended' by these things are people who are either:

1) bored and looking to validate their own lives by finding another 'cause' to fight for,
2) looking to convince themselves they're respectable human beings,
3) looking to score points with somebody (a politician trying to get votes, a bloke trying to impress a girl by showing how 'deep' he is),

or...

4) a combination of the above.

No humour is too far. Just make sure it's funny...or everyone will think you're looking for excuses to make dead babies seem acceptable and, thus, are just a weirdo.

Or if someones baby died

Same as some people who lost family members to cancer dont find cancer jokes funny.

I laugh at them but if I was one of the above I would probably be offended by it too

TeddyTedson

spankysue wrote: »

You should watch some of Frankie Boyle's stand up Teddy, you'll hear plenty of them

Some of them were actually funny, felt a little bit guilty for laughing at some but then I remembered that I wasn't actually hurting any kids by just having a chuckle.

Yea I've seen a few Frankie Boyle stuff, and it is funny. It's just that he's almost solely shock humor, and that wears a little thin.
I personally think you can joke about anything, although timing and environment obviously are a factor.

However, (this is the part where I contradict myself:D)he made a few jokes about Harvey, Jordons disabled child. I'm not sure it's right to publically name a specific case. It's very easy to just say a lot of things you wouldn't normally hear people say on a stage with thousands in the audience. It's one of the laziest forms of humor imo. (The irony of me typing IMO:P)

smokedeels

spankysue wrote: »

You should watch some of Frankie Boyle's stand up Teddy, you'll hear plenty of them

Boyle has become the poster boy for lazy shock humour

The formula is so simple:

A) Take a sacred cow or well-liked celebrity

Pick a disease or type of accident

C) Wish it on them, mock them for it having happend.

He's actually a decent comic, but I think he's become a caricature of himself, spouting contrived jokes each designed to be more offensive than the last.

smokedeels

garv123 wrote: »

Or if someones baby died

Same as some people who lost family members to cancer dont find cancer jokes funny.

I laugh at them but if I was one of the above I would probably be offended by it too

These jokes are never specific or emotive enough to resemble an incident like the death of a child or a battle with cancer.

garv123

smokedeels wrote: »

These jokes are never specific or emotive enough to resemble an incident like the death of a child or a battle with cancer.

How does a dead baby joke not resemble the death of child

smokedeels

garv123 wrote: »

How does a dead baby joke not resemble the death of child

The ones I've heard, admittedly a lot, mostly involve far-out ridiculous deaths and/or silly costumes.

leggo

garv123 wrote: »

Or if someones baby died

Same as some people who lost family members to cancer dont find cancer jokes funny.

I laugh at them but if I was one of the above I would probably be offended by it too

This is a fine line, for me:

See, of course, it's massively insensitive to make jokes about dead babies to somebody who has obviously been through it. It's irresponsible to make them in a group who you don't know particularly well in case you do offend someone.

But if I see someone who's suffered a loss complaining about the Facebook group, I can't feel sorry for them (not because of their suffering, but feel sorry for their being offended). All I can think is, "Why did you click that if you didn't want to be upset?!?"

And where do you draw the line? What if I had a beloved pet chicken that was run over by a car? Is death as a whole not distasteful, since its something we've all been affected by at some stage? Laughter is one way of dealing with these difficult issues, a healthy way in my opinion. Of course it depends on the joke, but like I said the line there is whether it's actually funny and/or clever, or just sick.

Blanket banning a whole topic, no matter how morbid the subject matter, is short-sighted and wrong to me though.

NegativeCreep

I can't understand why people get offended by these things. People have different senses of humour to other people and that's just it :L I seen a few people say that; "people who have lost babies will be offended by this and it's sick" that is the most ridiculous thing ever, people who have lost children won't be looking at these jokes.

Another thing I hate is that when it gets a bit of publicity EVERYONE goes onto the page to have a look just so that they can get offended also. If you don't look at it you can't get offended. It's not like you can't go through life without hearing one of these jokes :L

I think some of them can be funny, my sense of humour is incredibly dark and some of them don't go far enough :L

smokedeels

leggo wrote: »

And where do you draw the line? What if I beloved had a pet chicken that was run over by a car?

Or think of the Priest and his friends, both clergymen from different faiths who just want to have a quick pint together. The poor chaps would be greeted with expectant glances the moment they enter the pub.

Bloody jokes!

garv123

leggo wrote: »

This is a fine line, for me:

See, of course, it's massively insensitive to make jokes about dead babies to somebody who has obviously been through it. It's irresponsible to make them in a group who you don't know particularly well in case you do.

But if I see someone who's suffered a loss complaining about the Facebook group, I can't feel sorry for them (not because of their suffering, but feel sorry for their being offended). All I can think is, "Why did you click that if you didn't want to be upset?!?"

And where do you draw the line? What if I beloved had a pet chicken that was run over by a car? Is death as a whole not distasteful, since its something we've all been affected by at some stage? Laughter is one way of dealing with these difficult issues, a healthy way in my opinion. Of course it depends on the joke, but like I said the line there is whether it's actually funny and/or clever, or just sick.

Blanket banning a whole topic, no matter how morbid the subject matter, is short-sighted and wrong to me though.

I myself do have a fairly dark sense or humour and laugh at the jokes but I'm just pointing out other peoples reasons for been offended.

I remember around the time of the children killed on the tracks in liverpool loads of people were going mad posting complaints on sickipedia after seen the jokes.. As you said why were they on sickipedia in the first place

smokedeels

garv123 wrote: »

I myself do have a fairly dark sense or humour and laugh at the jokes but I'm just pointing out other peoples reasons for been offended.

I remember around the time of the children killed on the tracks in liverpool loads of people were going mad posting complaints on sickipedia after seen the jokes.. As you said why were they on sickipedia in the first place if the first place

Nail on the head, these jokes are easily avoided.

Megglet

RHarrow wrote: »

If we've learned anything from basically nothing but cringeworthy female comedians out there, it's that most women's sense of humour is stunted at best.

I may be a part of a minority, but I have quite a dark sense of humour and I'm known for coming out with rather shocking and perhaps not so politically correct lines for the sake of the ''lulz''.
I figure that as long as I don't mean what I'm saying and I'm in the company of people who've become used to my ways, it's okay.

smokedeels

smokedeels wrote: »

Nail on the head

Is that a sleight at my uncle who had the accident with a nailgun? I'm massively offended.

Sar_Bear

I find them hilarious to be honest!

smokedeels

Deleted User wrote: »

Is that a sleight at my uncle who had the accident with a nailgun? I'm massively offended.

Massive

Like my cousin who died from a heart attack brought on by obesity?

You have some nerve!

Tombi!

Nothing wrong with any kind of joke (so long as it brings no harm against someone).

As for the Facebook thing, I thought they stopped the "X has liked Offensive Joke Y" appearing on your news feed?
If not, I can see the problem.

If they have, then **** you all the people that say "hey, this person I'm friends has a sick sense of humour, better rant on their page instead of defriending the person in question".

Humour is up to the person. I find rape jokes comical. I'll glady protect anyone that looks like they're be raped or sexually molested. Why? Because that's how I am.

I love violent films, I love violent game, I laugh at violent jokes, but I don't condone it in real life.

Jokes are jokes, if you don't like a certain joke page, don't bother with it.

NegativeCreep

If you go to the dead baby jokes page on facebook you can see all the Irish people making absolute FOOLS of themselves commenting on their stuff and posting on their wall using horrific grammar as usual :rolleyes: Actively going out of their way to get offended by this page.
I blame Adrian and Jeremy from that phoneshow cause that's how the majority of them heard about it in the first place. Hate them two.

Didn't post a link cause I didn't know if it was against the rules or whatever.

entropi

That page earlier tonight had people going mental because someone trolled them with a picture. A simple picture, of a guy with a red afro to imply Irish people, and that he/she (the person posting the picture) hated Irish people etc.

So many gullible people fell for it lol.

As for the jokes themselves: I'm not a big fan of them, never was.

BillyMitchel

It's completely just for shock value and attention. I was chatting to some of the lads that were members from the start about reasons it's there, what they think of the attention and if it offends etc etc. Once they seen I wasnt making stupid threats and could string a sentence together they got bored very quickly and moved on to the abusive comments. Most are only teenagers. The comments that are getting left now are just as cringe worthy and sick as the jokes.

Some of the photos they have up are a bit shocking in fairness and the jokes are just terrible.

Can't see it getting shut down for its content but more so for the abuse people are giving and getting. It's becoming a bit racist too.

Don't care if it's there or not, there is one much worse than this but I won't say. The media attention its getting is ott too. The attention is what they want and they are getting it by the bucket load.

Duggy747

I'm open to every type and subject of humour, alot of which goes way too far but I don't like dead baby jokes.

Only because they're shìt and unimaginative for the sake of an easy shock horror attention grabbing techinque. It's something people used to say back in Junior Cert because it was all edgy and out-there, even then they were shìte at delivering it.

That being said, people shouldn't get hung up on it as if people are actually taking the piss out of dead babies. It's a shock factor curve-ball which is supposed to throw you off from conventional jokes.

oldyouth

I quit a popular forum over the whole dead babies debate. Most people found them hilarious, I find them to be very offensive. Personal opinion I suppose

up for anything

NegativeCreep wrote: »

If you go to the dead baby jokes page on facebook you can see all the Irish people making absolute FOOLS of themselves commenting on their stuff and posting on their wall using horrific grammar as usual :rolleyes: Actively going out of their way to get offended by this page.
I blame Adrian and Jeremy from that phoneshow cause that's how the majority of them heard about it in the first place. Hate them two.

Didn't post a link cause I didn't know if it was against the rules or whatever.

It's nice of you to give us quite a few examples. You must be one of those all the Irish people. :rolleyes:

Scanlas The 2nd

It offended and not funny. Stupid really. People
Looking for a reaction I'd guess.

Irish Guitarist

They don't offend me but they're not funny. I don't get the type of humour that is purely set out to be sick and puerile. I also can't stand comedians that say "if I haven't offended you then I haven't done my job". No, if you're a comedian your job is to be funny.

Orim

Dead baby jokes are extremely offensive.

As a person that enjoys good humour, I can't stand to see this kind of lazy attempt at humour.

The content has no bearing on my reaction. Someone shows me a good dead baby joke, I will laugh. As I will laugh at any joke that I find funny regardless of it's content.

Capt'n Midnight

spankysue wrote: »

I bet you're right, that's what happened with vaccines... but that's another thread for another night

You are OK this is the dead baby thread after all.