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People are arguing about EDGY COMEDY again, so it's time to dust off @pattonoswalt brilliant essay and point to the third section. This essay changed the way I tell jokes forever, and created the very standard by which appropriateness is judged.
pattonoswalt.com/index.cfm?page…
pattonoswalt.com/index.cfm?page…
@pattonoswalt The long and the short of it is that the measure of a joke comes down to who the target of the punchline is. If your rape joke is making Brock Turner the punchline, that's one thing; if the punchline is the woman, that's something else entirely. Two completely different jokes.
@pattonoswalt So if the punchline of the joke is an oppressed group or minority, it ceases to be a joke and becomes part of the chorus of oppression. You might laugh, you might think you mean nothing by it, but that doesn't change what it has become.
@pattonoswalt This is why something like BLAZING SADDLES remains "edgy." It's full of racist jokes, but the punchline is always the racist. Always.
