The tsunami in Japan is very sad and very tragic, but even though it is so tragic, is it not okay to laugh to ease the pain?
Gilbert Gottfried was fired from being the Afflac duck voice for making jokes on Twitter regarding the events in Japan. His jokes, “I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, ‘They’ll be another one floating by any minute now'” and “I fucked a girl in japan. She screamed ‘I feel the earth move and I’m getting wet.'”, but should he be fired over that? Yes it is a tragic time in Japan, but are we not allowed to laugh? Comedians aren’t known for being appropriate, in fact, that is one of the reasons we love them and watch them. I’ve laughed at September 11th jokes, why shouldn’t we be able to laugh?
The night of the tsunami trending topics on Twitter were Pearl Harbor and Godzilla. A writer for the Cleveland show tweeted “The tsunami is payback for Pearl Harbor”, I’ll be honest, I knew it was wrong, but I still laughed a bit. It isn’t because I have no respect for the country or what they are going through, but because it was so messed up. Godzilla was trending because they were saying the tsunami was really just him waking up, not as funny, but still amusing.
Maybe some would call me an asshole, maybe some would say I have no respect because I can laugh through this, and because I can laugh at September 11th. I’m not laughing at them, I am laughing at the jokes. As inappropriate as they are, they are funny. Maybe the world needs more laughter right now, so let go of the political correctness, put down your differences, get together with a neighbor and just laugh. What else can we do, just wallow? They say laughing is the best medicine and I agree with them.
I see your point. In such situations, laughter can be taken the wrong way. Personally I don’t laugh at those kind of jokes because I always cast my mind back onto the reality of these situations, but there’s nothing wrong with lightening the mood.
–
Yep, I have been gone for a long time. I need both of those – inspiration and time~
Tumblr is kind of like WordPress, I guess. It’s just a blogging site which I’m very fond of.
Yep, that’s the lyric. I like that one. 🙂
Take care! xx
I agree those jokes are funny. You just have to make sure you know the sense of humor the people around you have.
I’ve seen a lot jokes floating around on sickipedia.org about Japan; and I’ll be honest and I did laugh at most of them.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with laughing AT the jokes, I mean, it doesn’t mean we find the disaster funny itself.
You’re right, the world does need some laughter atm.
Those jokes are funny, people need to look on the lighter side. We don’t need to hear about the drama all the time. Some people can be easily offended so if you’re the one making the joke you just have to be careful. There’s nothing wrong with a good joke posted online where you can either look at it or ignore it, depending on how you feel.
I agree with you when you say that laughter is the best medicine, and that we need to look at the lighter side of everything. But personally, I would never laugh at such a joke because it was made at somebody else’s expense, and accept it or not, it was cruel. However, everybody has their own opinions. It might be funny to you and me, but wouldn’t be for the father who just saw his two month old baby girl drown in the “river” and couldn’t do anything about it, or the people who were literally buried alive in the debris, and suffocated to death.
—
Thank you for your nice comments.
My exams will come out in April and I have a feeling they are going to be good.
Oh, you’re the first Non-Indian I have come across who knows about Holi. I don’t know what Outsourced is, but they were right, it is a lot of fun. Diwali is even more fun, but you burn fire-crackers which cause a lot of pollution, and that is what turns me off.
Yeah, I really dislike Facebook… I read an article about someone who had left their address and everything clearly visible on their profile; they even had the decency to leave an update when they were leaving the house and when they would return. Guess who was robbed? I don’t know how someone can be so naive. I mean, really.
Well, I forgot to mention that she lives in Seattle, WA and I’m in Miami, FL at the moment (I moved away for college), so there’s not like she could confront me in person. Either way, she still should have called me.
Hmm, well I didn’t find the jokes particularly funny, I still don’t think he should have gotten fired over it. In a sense, I guess it was a bad time to make a joke like that because a bunch of people may throw a fit at Afflac and they may even lose business (assuming they haven’t already). Better to fire one employee then lose a million customers, know what I mean?
Laughter is a great medicine but there’s a time for that and there’s also a time to be serious.
I think it is one of those cases where it is okay to laugh at yourself, but laughing at others is mean. For example, if you fall over you can laugh at yourself, but if other people laugh and you are not then it is cruel.
The same can be applied to the disaster in Japan. People in Japan that suffered the earthquake / tsunami can laugh and joke about it if they like, if it helps. But if other people laugh that did not go through it then it is cruel and belittling.
That being said, I do not think that someone should loose their job over it. As humour and comedy is subjective and does not affect the way you do your job. Unless, he wasn’t working and just sitting there telling jokes all day.
I agree with you too, that laughing is the best medicine. But laughing at someone’s disaster is another thing.