Ok, so I love b3ta, and find myself guiltily laughing at most posts.
Yet when I hear about football crowds chanting about Raoul Moat and Derrick Bird www.metro.co.uk/news/835587-newcastle-united-fans-slammed-for-raoul-moat-chants, and the Facebook group “RIP Raoul Moat you Legend”- I find it horrifying.

I went to Latitude Festival the other weekend where there were two alleged rapes. Back home and logged onto Facebook, I noticed one of my friends* status was “Awesome festival, awesome friends, awesome music, awesome rape”. I think what I found so shocking about this was that one of the victims was a 19 year old girl from Norwich, and the guy who wrote the status is in his early 20s from Norwich. How does he know that out of his 600 +friends on Facebook- one of them doesn’t in some way know the victim, or one of her friends or family?

I just can’t believe that people can so publicly jeer and almost "big-up" the kind of people who murder and rape innocent people- sometimes it scares me… :-(

My conscience is very confused… I can't figure out why I like b3ta, but get angry/scared at the other things.

But I liked the quote that someone posted by Chris Morris- that there is comedy in every tragic situation- but the joke needs to be worth telling…


*went to school with and wouldn’t have him on friend list if he wasn’t living with my brother.
( awayfromthenumbers, Mon 26 Jul 2010, 10:24, 16 replies)

Yes. Some people equally get hissy about Madeline McCann jokes for a similar reason.
I can understand if it was your sister who was raped at the festival, or your friend who was killed, but if you didn't know them, then I think getting upset about people laughing at stuff and jeering is - to put it mildly - pointless at the very least, and certainly B3ta isn't the place to be to avoid it.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 26 Jul 2010, 10:34, closed)

"I'm alright Jack ?"
It's ok until it's close to you ?
Humour is a strange thing. Hypothetical situations are where it's at for me, or private laughter when you know you're a knob for laughing. But you know you're a knob and are suitably ashamed, not proud of yourself. I guess that's why this qotw is called "Guilty Laughs", with the emphasis on "guilty".
Posting "awesome rape" on your facebook status would probably be seen by some as a hate crime, and I wouldn't be surprised that some may see that as an arrest-able offence. "Pointless" is a very personal term - it may be pointless to be angry at injustice and suffering, but it proves you are still human deep down.
(womanwhocanonlylivewithdogs, Mon 26 Jul 2010, 11:20, closed)

"I'm alright, Jack" is the bit of honest humanity that it's socially unacceptable to embrace, for some reason.
While it's useful to cooperate socially, we do it for our own means, and thus empathy is useful to encourage this, but to claim you feel for the McCanns, or that Lady Diana's death affected you personally smacks of posturing.

Yes Awesome Rape is a sick thing to post on your profile, but to be morally outraged? Shock news - idiots say idiot things.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 26 Jul 2010, 11:25, closed)

Lady Di's death did affect me personally. I frequently had to drive past Althorp on my way to Northampton, and the traffic was terrible.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Mon 26 Jul 2010, 12:04, closed)

In which case, I am sorry for you.
Actually - bollocks - I've never met you. I don't care. Sorry.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 26 Jul 2010, 12:17, closed)

Hehehe
It's easy to make nasty jokes about people you don't know, but it also works in reverse too eg;

*turns on news*

"....and other news tonight was the passing of Jade Goody. A normal mother who became a nation's favourite finally lost her battle to cancer this morning..."

Firstly, never met the girl. Secondly I never will meet the girl. Thirdly, I never really wanted to meet the girl.

So thankyou Mr Reporter for trying to make us all publicly mourn the passing of this Nation's Treasure. Yeah, dying and leaving kids is a bad thing, don't get me wrong, but if the same situation happened to a family in the same suburb as us the reporters wouldn't give two fucks about it.
( Jeccius Steam Borderlands 2 junkie, Mon 26 Jul 2010, 12:34, closed)

However, then it goes full circle.
There is/was an awful underground "magazine" in the punk and anarchist community called "Class War", which pretty well did exactly as it said on the tin - full of articles written by idiots about how they were at war with ... well - everything, especially those they perceived to be middle class, because ... well ... they were fucking middle class, innit. Why? No real idea (these people generally don't) but there it was and that was that.

They used to feature a Page Three Dead Copper Of The Month.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 26 Jul 2010, 12:44, closed)

Dear God, Vag.
If I didn't know better, I'd think you were some kind of cynic!
(Falstaff's Spiritual Successor, Mon 26 Jul 2010, 12:50, closed)

I used to be a cynic, but I grew up.

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 26 Jul 2010, 13:00, closed)

I used to be a doe-eyed idealist, but I grew up.
Discuss.
(Falstaff's Spiritual Successor, Mon 26 Jul 2010, 13:29, closed)

We all do, sadly.
Except me.

I have An Agreement.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 26 Jul 2010, 15:22, closed)

You can't have it both ways
...as the debutante said to the Colonel.
(Falstaff's Spiritual Successor, Mon 26 Jul 2010, 16:10, closed)

Racist

( Snappyuk gets BIGGER with free sample., Mon 26 Jul 2010, 13:48, closed)

Also, a not insignificant number of people love to get publicly offended by something that doesn't involve them, just so they can stoke their egos by acting important and morally superior.
That, or they get a genuine perverse thrill from having the great stubby cock of offence raping their delicate sensibilities.
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Mon 26 Jul 2010, 18:50, closed)

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not being hissy, or trying to act superior. I’m just trying to figure out the difference.

With b3ta, you know what to expect when you come onto the site, and it has a like-minded community. There are posts which could be considered bad taste, but they are generally witty and not meant in malice. They tend not to offend people, as the people that read them are fellow b3tans. Hence the McCann parents have prolly never seen or heard of them. I agree with womanwhocanonlylivewithdogs, with the difference of guilty/ private laughing, and unashamed laughing.

Someone like Siobhan O'Dowd managing to rally up over 30,000 people to join her way of thinking is scary... especially after hearing the interview with her! And she, as well as the guy with the Facebook staus, haven’t considered (or don’t care) that they could be seen as publicly offensive.

Still, freedom of speech and all that.

I’m not sure I agree that it’s “pointless” to care. To get upset or dwell on it would be oversensitive, but considering it pointless even to feel any sympathy or empathy however fleeting, is probably what leaves people desensitised.
( awayfromthenumbers, Tue 27 Jul 2010, 9:45, closed)

Context
The intent of the joke etc etc.
If it is said and meant, and taken to mean, with self conscious irony then it is rather more acceptable, because the joke is in the incongruity rather than in the delight in the misfortune.

I grew up in a situation where racism was almost exclusively ironic, such was the underlying and understood anti-racist sentiment, and in that sense, the humour reinforced that underlying antiracist attitude: it is inherently absurd to be racist.

The same thing can happen with this rather black humour. If it is understood that rape is horrendous, the juxtaposition of rape with the fun times of music/festival/friends, is absurd and thus humorous.

However, it can also be taken as "ha ha that idiot got raped".

Assuming good faith, you can take it as the former rather than the latter, and live a nicer life. So, if you think that the people on b3ta are basically decent, and don't really want to rape or murder children or find such things inherently amusing, then it's ok to laugh at Maddy McCann jokes.
( Sextant goes to him is emotionally erect, on this day, Wed 28 Jul 2010, 14:12, closed)