On Sunday 17 Feb 2002 5:42 pm, Chester Worwa wrote:
> Ok, I feel like putting my $.02 in here.  I don't get
> Comedy Central over here either, but hay talk about
> making fun of people with disabilities, I do it
> naturally.  You know that song "Free Falling" by Tom
> Petty?  I actually fall over onto matresses to that
> song at camp.
>
>
> Chester Worwa
>

This is not quite the same. There is a very fine line between humour
and insult. A vast amount of humour relies on taking a perceived
attribute of a minority group and "stretching" it to absurd lengths.
We've all heard jokes about the intellectual capacity of the Irish
(fill in Polish/Redkneck whatever), but we all know these are
generalisations, we all know people like Kat (irish descent right?)
who could knock our own IQ into a cocked hat. We "know" the Irish
aren't stupid but we still laugh at the joke - temporarily accepting
the false premise. Why is this acceptable to most people? Because we
know it is a joke, we know that this does not apply to indiduals.

It is when humour descends to the individual, or very small groups
that it changes to insult. In the appalling case described by Betty
the insults were pointed at just 2 living breathing individuals so it
is not funny at all.

If, at Summer Camp, one of the other Camp Leaders dressed as you,
wore a sign that said "Chester", and dived onto the mattresses, I'm
sure the kids would laugh just as much, (the grand tradition of
slapstick), but would you feel the same, probably not.

Cheers

Deri (who knows a doozy of a joke about conjoined twins, purely in a
general case though).