It seems like there’s always that one friend that tends to take things too far.

When I was scrolling through Twitter the other day I saw a video that had resurfaced. It was the controversial comedian, Pete Davidson, on stage doing a skit. Davidson was joking about how his father had died in 9/11. He received some awkward laughter from the crowd and then continued with the rest of his act.

However, when I viewed it on Twitter, it seemed as if he was getting major backlash from people on the internet. Davidson was being criticized for joking about a more subject manner.
Davidson is a comedian, it is literally what he does for a living. It may be tough to maintain the line between funny and uncomfortable, but all jokes could become offensive to some extent from time to time.

A comedian needs to notice that if their audience tends to be less loud with their laughter then clearly the audience didn’t find the joke funny or it offended them.

When does one draw the line between humor and actually being offensive? When is it ever okay to joke about sensitive topics such as 9/11, slavery or even the Holocaust?

Senior Gene Lewis thinks the context of the joke should depend on the person. “Everybody does not think the same things are funny,” Lewis said. “Dark humor can easily bring light and a more positive aspect to something that’s not so great.”

I, myself, have been in some pretty awkward situations. One of the most awkward moments for me was when I was joking about death around a couple of my close friends.

Even though the joke didn’t have anything to do with my friends they got a kind of offended. They started to tell me that death is not something to joke about. Even though we have different perspectives, out of respect of my friends I made it a point to not joke about death around them from that point on.

From this experience I learned that joking about death has helped me cope with the loss that I have had to go through in my own life. I didn’t sit and think that maybe they were coping about the loss in their lives by not talking about death in general.

At the end of the day, funny is whatever sparks laughter and joy while being offensive sparks anger and discomfort.

So yeah, sarcasm can be funny and being funny may come off as offensive at times but it’s only at the cost of a little laughter. Knowing your crowd and knowing how they tolerate your sense of humor creates that line of what can actually be joked about.

So if you happen to be the sensitive type and don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings then I suggest that you stick to the jokes that ensure nobody gets offended.

And if you happen to enjoy dark humor and find pleasure in jokes regardless of subject manner, then that’s fine; you just have to be mindful of other people’s feelings.

Humor should be fun, even if it’s edgy. You should be respectful of your friends along with other groups of people that may view things differently and vice versa. That is not a difficult line to draw.