When Are Jokes Considered to Be Offensive?

Taki once said "Humor is a reminder that no matter how high the throne one sits on, one sits on one's bottom." Humor can remind us of many things - and some times it reminds us of the differences between our selves and others. Many times we think these differences are funny because they are strange to us so be caution when using jokes.

In this day and age it seems that everything or at least almost everything is a joke to people. We find it very easy to make fun of people because of their skin color, their religion, their profession, or even where they live. Many of us find these jokes incredibly funny - but do we think about the people that they are making fun of? Do we stop to think about how offensive it may be to someone?

As kids many of us were taught to respect our elders and to respect other people. It didn't matter whether they were black or white, Jewish or Catholic, brunette or blondes, or even lawyers or politicians. But somewhere between growing up and trying to fit in our views become skewed and we find ourselves doing things differently.

It can be hard sometimes not to find certain jokes funny even if they are making fun of other types of people. You have many television show hosts like Jay Leno making fun of celebrities and politicians and sometimes we just have to agree with them. Then you have singers like Weird Al who takes songs and turns them into parodies of the way people can act or how nerdy someone can be.

I believe that there are some jokes that are hilarious and I love to pass them around and share them with others. But at the same time I try to make sure that they are not so offensive. For example there are some blonde jokes that are just downright funny and then there are some that are taken too far. I know that many perceive blondes as being brainless and that is where the jokes come from. I was blonde (once upon a time) - but I never took these jokes to heart and understood they were just for fun.

The best thing to remember is not to take these jokes too far and to keep them in moderation. Not every joke is supposed to be taken literally. Just because they are making fun of a lawyer doesn't mean they are talking about you. If you are going to use it to tease others then just make sure they will find it funny and don't take it too far.

On those really hard days at work we need something that will cheer us up and put a smile on our face. F&J is the best joke site on the web that has hundreds of blonde jokes, lawyer jokes and even funny comics. You can read them yourself and even send them to people in your office.

Historical Fiction and Telling Jokes Considered

Not all jokes are timeless, jokes that were told in different eras in history, with different uses of the words, and different cultures can easily get lost in translation. For someone writing historical fiction they need to make sure that the jokes that they are telling in the book are authentic, but they have to be careful which types of jokes they tell because some of those jokes will not be funny to the reader in the present period.

It takes a lot of research to do it correctly, and if you do it exactly correctly your book might be humorless, because no one who is reading it today will find the jokes are funny. Indeed it probably isn't funny to today's reader also considering all the funny things we have these days in our current era. Humor is everywhere in our society and one has to be very competitive to get a laugh these days.

Nevertheless, this is where a historical fiction novelist needs to figure out how they want to play it. Some jokes are funny now that were actually funny then, but not many. All books need humor, so it takes a little bit of work and extra research to figure out what jokes are translatable from the culture your writing in and the historical time period, to the present day.

Just the other day, I was reading a historical fiction novel, where the characters told a joke and they both had a laugh. The joke was one that we might like here today, but I am almost certain that no one in that time period would've told such a joke, it was totally out of context.

Now, I suppose someone simply reading through the novel wouldn't have noticed, but I did, and I guess I have less respect for the author now, then I once did, because I felt as if it wasn't authentic, and that this Historical Fiction writer didn't do their homework. Please consider all this.

Lance Winslow - Lance Winslow's Bio. Lance Winslow is also Founder of the Car Wash Guys, a cool little Franchise Company; http://www.carwashguys.com/history/founder.html/.