Good Day Fellow bikers. Another day, another silly thread from icey (lol)   'Humour...or is it?'   I was raised on such gentle brilliance as laurel and hardy, charlie chaplin and the riskiest it got in my youth was the liver birds or the likely lads.   There seems to be a modern line of thought that says humour must be shocking to work, must gently lead one down a quiet garden path to a quaint little bridge...with a whacking great bad tempered and bad mouthed, semi dressed troll underneath waiting to thump you with a punch-line.   Does humour need to shock..need a bandage to be applied after to be of worth? Certainly not in my eyes, i cringe in disdain at the language and sexual innuendos presented to me by the modern comics or sitcoms.    Yesteryear it was easier to see the line but nowadays there doesn't seem to be! one, so where does humour end and insulting, immoral bad taste begin? What is fair game for humour and what (if anything) is taboo?    Thank you for listening and (in anticipation) hopefully taking part...   ..icey                                                                                                                                                                              

if it makes you laugh its funny and therefore fair to be classed as humour and often its not about content but delivery that makes it work                                                                                                                                                                              

Good Afternoon Kwakgirl.   A nice fast response, nice to receive and thank you for adding your thoughts.   I agree on your description of humour and agree wholeheartedly about the comical timing of but...   ..is there a subject that could make you not laugh but rather take a stride back from the cosy chair word 'entertainment' and step closer to the counter of moral complaint?   ..icey                                                                                                                                                                             

Dave Allen used to crack me up but he'd probably fall flat with the younger generation these days. Fashions change and if I had to sit through a day of the 3 stooges I'd probably end up insane but my parents generation liked them and probably thought Dave Allen was sacrilegious and bound for hell the way he took the piss out of the priests. Just look at the reaction by the likes of Mary Whitehouse to The Life of Brian. To me it's a film that can still have me rolling on the floor but to her it was the work of the devil.

Now we are becoming the older generation and we just don't get it.

icey, from my point of view ,i would say that i have as open a mind as anyone,probably a bit more so ,humour takes many forms,but i still find the modern predeliction for expletives as every other word a bit galling,shows a lack of originality for starters...the funniest act at the farmyard rally stand up afternoon for me relied on the tried and tested method of involve the audience.....encouraged hecklers and was intelligent enough to resort to f**k as part of a punchline once in 20 mins......humour,hmmm.good comedians remain anectdotal in approach ,bad ones for me swear too much.the above is merely my opinion,i reserve the right to please myself in this idiom,ta!

Yes, I agree - using the f word very occasionally as a 'shock' tactic is humourous, but to overdo it reduces its value immensely.                                                                                                                                                                             

xk,put that tube of mustard down,poor cat!!see- humour ,no expletives!!                                                                                                                                                                             

feck orf!                                                                                                                                                                             

I would say it all depends on the subject matter and now two people are going to be alike.. but what I detest.. what I truly detest more than the ilk of Roy Chubby Brown is the "comedian" and I use the term loosely here.. is when the "comedian" constantly uses a flourish of one liners that put people down.. shows them in a bad light to onlookers who don't hear the full story.. they hear the "quip" and can then judge that person based on the one liner.. but even more... What I detest is when confronted they turn round and say..   "oh it was only a joke.. where's your sense of humour..."                                                                                                                                                                             

Hello Gloom. Nice to hear from you.   I too was/am a big dave allen fan, just one man, sat on a chair, no back-up or flashing lights, genius (although i'm sure i also remember sketches, perhaps in the latter series). I'm sure there were many religious types that would have been reaching for the bibles for comfort at some of the things he came out with.   You make a good round set of points and i thank you for them.   Perhaps you are right, perhaps i am just getting old and 'not getting it' but i do think that the way 'humour' now drags us through the gutters in an attempt to entertain is not healthy for society, not healthy for a balanced life and counterproductive to teaching respect and values. Too many times i have heard prejudice and bigotry wrapped in the sheep's clothing of humour [/my opinion]   Nice to share Gloom...   ..icey                                                                                                                                                                              

@ Icey.....i havent come across a subject that would make me take a step back yet........id find some things a bit in bad taste but sometimes even bad taste is a little amusing.....and personally i swear too much (in case anyone hadnt gathered from some of my posts lol) its a way of speaking that has got worse since i lived here where a majority would speak like that...so i dont really find "swearing" offensive. i think i would say you should tailor your humour for the audience....i mean think about it, in the 1970's everyone thought Bernard Manning funny....but sure 30 years later you would only have gone to the Embassy Club to hear him as he definitely wasnt "mainstream" by then although HIS humour, content and delivery hadnt changed...only we had changed!
                                                                                                                                                                             

  ...in the 1970's everyone thought Bernard Manning funny     Not everyone                                                                                                                                                                             

I'm with Sandi. I could never stand the guy.                                                                                                                                                                                

I think wot Deb' s meant wos that BM wos more acceptable.   So, humour is what you perceive it to be.   If u don't like it, change reception.                                                                                                                                                                             

As some have said, our tastes change with age/time.
I can remember some of the worst sit-coms of the 70's ...

Man about the house + Terry and June being the icing on the cake.
Absolute tedium at best.

I guess I would have been the right age for it but when The Young Ones came on, oh boy did I laugh.

From mild and mundane shite to outrageous anarchy...  splendid  

So foul language has it's place in comedy if/when it's appropriate definitely.
I would still agree to some extent with the opening statement though, that profanity doesn't need to be there, or maybe I'm just getting old?

                                                                                                                                                                             

I watched the young ones last night on Gold :)
And we are all getting old or dead.
                                                                                                                                                                             

 A good post! There's nothing like a good laugh, is there? Good humour is as good as it gets. What I don't get is the need for the ultra-obscenities and some words are, I think: taboo,  totally offensive and un-necessary, Some expletives are right- on though and nothing else would work as well; so it's not just the language - it's the context. The best humour in the world is done right here in the UK. We have plenty to choose from. I just flick the switch on the shite (which includes toilet humour) - pun intended.

Seems like a good time to mention the passing of the late Eric Sykes. Another of the great comedien's gone.....   Having said that, one of my most fave comedy shows ever has to be The League of Gentlemen.... dark humour but oh so funny !!!!!!                                                                                                                                                                             

  I prefer the sort of humour the Two Ronnies used to give us. Play on words, I especially liked the Rindercella Story as told by Ronnie Barker. LOL      This is the story of Rindercella and her sugly isters.   Rindercella and her sugly isters lived in a marge lansion. Rindercella worked very hard frubbing sloors, emptying poss pits, and shivelling shot. At the end of the day she was knucking fackered. The sugly isters were right bugly astards. One was called Mary Hinge, and the other was called Betty Swallocks; they were really forrible huckers, they had fetty sweet and fetty swannies. The sugly isters had tickets to go to the ball, but the cotton runts would not let Rindercella go.   Suddenly there was a bucking fang, and her gairy fodmother appeared. Her name was Shairy Hithole and she was a light rucking fesbian. She turned a pumpkin and six mite wice into a hucking cuge farriage with six dandy ronkeys who had buge hillocks and dig bicks.   The gairy fodmother told Rindercella to be back by dimlight otherwise there would be a cucking falamity.   At the ball Rindercella was dancing with the prandsome hince when suddenly the clock struck twelve. “Mist all chucking frighty!!!” said Rindercella, and she ran out tripping barse over ollocks, so dropping her slass glipper.   The very next day the prandsome hince knocked on Rindercella’s door and the sugly isters let him in. Suddenly, Betty Swallocks lifted her leg and let off a fig bart. “Who fust jarted??” asked the prandsome hince. “Blame that fugly ucker over there!!” said Mary Hinge. When the stinking brown cloud had lifted he tried the slass glipper on both the sugly isters without success and their feet stucking funk.   Betty Swallocks was ducking fisgusted and gave the prandsome hince a knack in the kickers. This was not difficult as he had bucking fuge halls and a hig bard on. He tried the slass glipper on Rindercella and it fitted pucking ferfectly.   Rindercella and the prandsome hince were married. The prandsome hince lived his life in lucking fuxury, and Rindercella lived hers with a follen swanny.                                                                                                                                                                                   

Oooh.  Humour!

How subjective is that?

The things that make me laugh until my sides split are generally so completely random and related to my own personal life experiences that the rest of the world can just completely pass me by.

Can't say bad language and gutter humour works for me everytime.  But just occasionally a little raw nerve might be caught.  Attached directly to my gutteral humour valve.  And then - well!  I'm off like a drain - laughing until I get a six pack (well - feels like it anyways).   Laughter is so the best medicine for the soul.   But humour is completely random!

However.  (serious moment).   Humour at the expense of people's sensitivies is so NOT funny.   Yeah - those boundaries might be a bit blurry but picking on people's weak spots and making a joke of them isn't funny.  Its downright bullying.  And i hate it.

Just give me Joanna Lumley and wotsername (soz - senior moment) - in absolutely fabulous.   Mega.   Girlie humour at its best.   Maybe humour can have a gender bias!   Compare, contrast and, my friends - discuss.