Mike Mendis answered to a website the question: "What is the limit, or is there a limit, to humor?"
When humour is done artfully and tastefully, there are no limits. All topics are fair game. However, when done poorly and in bad taste, so-called "jokes" can come across as offensive. As long as humour serves as social commentary, as long as it sheds light on something that is fundamentally true about human nature, it is acceptable, no matter what the topic. If it is mean-spirited, nasty, demeaning, then it is not acceptable, regardless of the topic.
The most successful comedians are the ones who make us laugh at our own weaknesses (and at human weakness in general). They make us realize that we are all human, and that humans are not perfect. We can accept human nature with all its weaknesses and quirks and foibles more easily if we can see the funny side of these weaknesses and quirks and foibles. Our weaknesses somehow become more tolerable because they are cast in a humourous light. Humour helps us not to take human weaknesses too seriously
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would like to start a discussion on this topic as it is a hotly debated topic, especially when it comes to famous comedians and their famous jokes.
Our life will always have a limit, in the case of the joke, this limit must be moral. Being a comedy doesn't mean it's positive or good for the listener. Black and blond, thin and fat, homosexual and transgender people go through frequent stereotypes. Many say every blonde is stupid, every black guy is a poor guy, every homosexual likes to get attention, every thin person is anorexic, every fat person is a beached whale, but is that true?
The joke will only be funny to the comedian if he is not part of the historical context. In the end, jokes often only reinforce bad historical events for certain groups, but there is the mistake of always wanting to romanticize something that is not to be romanticized, because unfortunately it is still very much portrayed in our current society. You end up reproducing the speech of racists, homophobes, gordophobes and miscoginists with simple words or their own "jokes".
Finally, I disagree that every comedian seeks to make these lines funny, as many use jokes to spread internal prejudice. It's never just a joke if the other is humiliated. The less racist, homophobic or sexist jokes we tell, the more likely we are to have a better next generation and a society with less discrimination.
What is your opinion about this theme?
