Funny or offensive? *NSFW*

[RONIN]

As time goes by, certain things that were humorous in the past end up aging badly.

Is that the case with these clips? 

 

Ace discovers an erm...big secret about his boss Lois Einhorn after she kisses him. 

 

Even the bull stops chewing after the revelation @ 1:18  

 

 

Edited May 21, 2018 by RONIN

[Gracii Guns]

I’ve not seen any of those films in full. There’s a context for all of these (comedy, 10-20 years ago) and those jokes just wouldn’t be funny now. I’m not going to choose to be offended by then though.

I did have a moment like that a few months ago though. Zoolander 2 (absolutely shite btw) has a “joke” about a man miscarrying a baby at the end — with an nonchalant attitude as if it wasn’t a traumatic experience. Did anyone else see that? It made an expectedly bad sequel hit the floor. I did find that confusing and I feel bad for the women involved in making that movie who didn’t speak up because it might mean disclosing their personal struggles with bringing a child to term.

[Gibson87]

I wouldn't consider them offensive. They're not that funny either, but that's probably because comedy has evolved. I did have a laugh at the Ace Ventura clip though. I grew up on those movies.

[Len Cnut]

 

[soon]

Yeah, I don't find them all that funny or offensive, personally.  Everyone has their own unique sense of humour so I dont mean to be rude when I say that I remember when Tropic of Thunder came out seeing that scene and just thinking "gay jokes are starting to seem kinda school-yard." And while sometimes far too often I love me some juvenile humour, that one just didn't hit for me. The Black face is really funny imo and has context making it funny. 

[Gordon Comstock]

I used to watch the first couple Scary Movie's all the time when I was a kid, thought they were funny. Seen Tropic Thunder once or twice, it has its moments. Even if the scenes aren't 'funny', who gets offended by these? If you're offended by comedy movies then fuck off, you're too easily offended

[-W.A.R-]

 I hired you people to try to get a little track laid, not to jump around like a bunch of Kansas City f*ggots.

[RONIN]

1 hour ago, soon said:

Yeah, I don't find them all that funny or offensive, personally.  Everyone has their own unique sense of humour so I dont mean to be rude when I say that I remember when Tropic of Thunder came out seeing that scene and just thinking "gay jokes are starting to seem kinda school-yard." And while sometimes far too often I love me some juvenile humour, that one just didn't hit for me. The Black face is really funny imo and has context making it funny. 

Bingo. It was already a thing in 80's movies, then it went really mainstream in the 90's with The Birdcage but by the 00's I felt like the whole thing was played out. Being gay isn't as taboo as it was during the times those movies were made which makes the humor seem even more out of touch.

They shifted it slightly with Scary Movie and Tropic Thunder where they're trying to send up American hypermasculinity in a spoofy kind of way which makes it relevant even now (especially with our current president in office). In some ways, that's an evergreen comedic angle. But still, for the normal mainstream audience, I feel like these jokes are increasingly feeling outdated.

I haven't watched a raunchy teen comedy in awhile but I wonder if gay jokes are still a thing now as they were in the 90's and 00's. 

 

2 hours ago, Gibson_Guy87 said:

I wouldn't consider them offensive. They're not that funny either, but that's probably because comedy has evolved. I did have a laugh at the Ace Ventura clip though. I grew up on those movies.

What made it funnier at the time was the song that's used in the scene, "The Crying Game" by Boy George. The Crying Game was a much talked about "controversial" movie at the time Ace came out. It was about a romance between a man and a pre-op transgender female. That scene from Ace would never make it into a movie today. 

Edited May 21, 2018 by RONIN

[soon]

6 hours ago, RONIN said:

Bingo. It was already a thing in 80's movies, then it went really mainstream in the 90's with The Birdcage but by the 00's I felt like the whole thing was played out. Being gay isn't as taboo as it was during the times those movies were made which makes the humor much less effective. They shifted it slightly with Scary Movie and Tropic Thunder where they're trying to send up American hypermasculinity in a spoofy kind of way but when I see these jokes now they are starting to feel really out of touch. As someone earlier said, comedy has evolved way past that. I haven't watched a raunchy teen comedy in awhile but I wonder if gay jokes are still a thing now as they were in the 90's and 00's. 

 

I think you've unpacked that Tropic of Thunder thing really well.  To me it was simply not very funny, but when you contextualize it, it has more merit as a device.

Most recently, for raunchy teen comedy, I watched Scream Queens on Netflix.  IIRC there is humour derived from the fact that at least one main character is lesbian, but it's all 'insider' as opposed to 'outsider' humour in that series (not sure I finished the series I should say, but maybe will get back to it). That humour seems to be aimed to make lesbians and those familiar with the culture(s) laugh.  It equalizes power dynamics in the places it finds humour and with its use of irony, rather then putting-down or ostracizing anyone. With the irony it tips it hat at 'outsiders' whom they still hope to get a laugh out of, I think. I think thats what they were going for at least.

Edited May 22, 2018 by soon
grammer

[RONIN]

 

2 hours ago, Gordon Comstock said:

 who gets offended by these? 

Taken at face value, the tropic thunder clips seem to implicitly suggest that there's something wrong/taboo with being gay. If you look at them as a trolling of macho culture and that there's a sense of irony to the whole thing, it can be perceived differently. 

The Ace Ventura and Scary Movie clips are a bit more problematic because they're taking a dig at transgender people (especially the Ace clip). But there's no subtext or irony there unlike the Tropic Thunder stuff. The scary movie clip is just a naked gun style gag that feels really weird to see in a post-Bruce Jenner world. 

Edited May 21, 2018 by RONIN

[Whiskey Rose]

Coincidentally (or not) Fahrenheit 451 is playing on HBO - a novel from the 50's, a dystopian vision of a world where books and information are burned or altered so as not to offend a certain faction of society.. I can already see hints of this happening in certain statues and the like being removed from public places, so I really do hope that we don't, as a collective, start turning our eye towards art, information, history, culture, anything that was "of the times" in our past, and be so offended that we start to remove things from public access because we are using a modern perspective to judge what were different norms of society at the time. We are always evolving, but we mustn't be so "offended" at everything that came before..it all led us to where we are now.

[Gordon Comstock]

48 minutes ago, RONIN said:

 

Taken at face value, the tropic thunder clips seem to implicitly suggest that there's something wrong/taboo with being gay. If you look at them as a trolling of macho culture and that there's a sense of irony to the whole thing, it can be perceived differently. 

The Ace Ventura and Scary Movie clips are a bit more problematic because they're taking a dig at transgender people (especially the Ace clip). But there's no subtext or irony there unlike the Tropic Thunder stuff. The scary movie clip is just a naked gun style gag that feels really weird to see in a post-Bruce Jenner world. 

 

Again, if you're offended by a (20+ year old) comedy movie then you're too easily offended. Even it they were recent movies, transgender jokes are fine because they're jokes. In the context of comedy, basically anything is fair game.

[Sosso]

 

[Eric Cantona]

I'm offended if I get detained at a mall and being accused of stealing because I'm Sámi, not if I hear a joke about small drunken Sámis.

If comedy offends you, grow a fucking pair.

[grouse]

Seriously its comedy, grow some thicker skin if you're even remotely offended by stuff like that.

[Ace Nova]

5 hours ago, grouse said:

Seriously its comedy, grow some thicker skin if you're even remotely offended by stuff like that.

This.

And if you're offended by any of that stuff, stay away from just about any stand up comedy special on HBO, Netfllix, etc...

[AxlRoseCDII]

People get offended by literally anything these days so it’s getting harder to determine what is actually offensive when not looking at personal views.

[Dazey]

 

[/thread] Drops mic ..........  

[action]

I fail to see how things that were funny before, aren't funny anymore. the reason being, they "aged badly".

If any of those clips were funny before (havent seen them apart from the jim carrey one) then they are still today. Doesn't really matter if a couple of people take offence. I guess they should be buying something from the new age section then.

[Len Cnut]

7 hours ago, Oldest Goat said:

Tropic Thunder was pretty funny and so were its fake movie trailers. I don't remember Ace Ventura but found this clip funny. I loved Scary Movie when I was a kid, still find it a little bit funny in a juvenile sort of way. The clip @Len Cnut posted however, was not funny. Fuck you, Leonard.

Satire young man.  The idea is his ignorance and sense of superiority is laughable.

[Len Cnut]

11 minutes ago, Oldest Goat said:

Fuck, that's sort of highbrow if true and if true also very pleasant, as far as the audience is concerned. But it just doesn't work for me.

It makes more sense if you're from a time closer to the time because people like that were plentiful, its probably a harder swallow nowadays, I forget that you're just a young lad.  Fuck, I know some people like that now   It was actually very controversial in its day for reactions similar to yours, the idea that the audience was laughing with him and not at him. 

[Len Cnut]

18 minutes ago, Oldest Goat said:

I'm sure you know this but just to be clear I was joking when I told you to fuck off, as if I must approve of and be amused by every joke. It takes a lot to offend me, I don't find it funny but I'm not offended.

But I am suspicious/curious of the context now. If it is as you say I'm slightly irritated that I can't pick up on that. In my mind I am certain it's a poor taste *nudge nudge* "Cause we all feel like that deep down don't we, cobbers?" Like there's no satire at all just a guttural dumping.

I'm not that young anymore I'm afraid. I'll be 27 this year. I should kill myself right now.

There appear to be 3 chief lines of response to the show in the new millenium.  1 - politically correct brigade who are afraid of it, call it offensive, say the audience are laughing in the wrong way (a comment that I always found rather curious)  2 - anti-political correct brigade who seem to thing the length and breadth of a being against political correctness is being allowed to call a black man a n!gger,  a right which is denied them (apparently) and 3 - this is the minority, people who see it for what it is and find it funny.  To me that makes it about as powerful a satire as you can imagine, in its day the people it was satirising thought they were being championed by it and now its considered offensive by the very same people who claim to be the flagbearers for this spirit in which it was intended.  That makes it, to my mind, about as powerful as something like a sitcom could possibly be. 

He never wins in the show, never ends up ahead, always ends up making a fool/embarassment of himself, I can't think how anyone who saw it could've thought anything other than that he was the butt of the jokes.

Edited May 22, 2018 by Len Cnut

[Ace Nova]

10 hours ago, AxlRoseCDII said:

People get offended by literally anything these days so it’s getting harder to determine what is actually offensive when not looking at personal views.

I'm offended by people that get offended by this type of stuff. 

[-W.A.R-]

33 minutes ago, Kasanova King said:

I'm offended by people that get offended by this type of stuff. 

Im offended that you're offended by people who are offended.

[J Dog]

19 hours ago, RONIN said:

 

The Ace Ventura and Scary Movie clips are a bit more problematic because they're taking a dig at transgender people (especially the Ace clip). But there's no subtext or irony there unlike the Tropic Thunder stuff. The scary movie clip is just a naked gun style gag that feels really weird to see in a post-Bruce Jenner world. 

Why is Ace problematic? He's a straight guy who was tricked into wanting and kissing a man? That's not really a dig at anybody, just someone who freaked out after being tricked into do something he's not into. I'm a straight guy, and if I was tricked into wanting and kissing a man I'd have some type of reaction (not sure I'd cry in the shower ). So if I had a negative reaction after said situation, would that offended you? Would that mean I hate gay/transgender? Would that make me homophobic? That's ridiculous.