A perfectly legitimate one (and the haircut reference is directly from Clarkson).
Teasing is fun. It keeps people sharp, and is tremendously entertaining. It is also a good way to ensure that people don't take themselves too seriously and become self righteous bores.

People take themselves too seriously, bitch about being insulted and having hurt feelings, and it's a crock of shit, and it means that people's opinions are given too much credibility. Respect is fine, but nothing in this world should be sacred and immune from mockery (although there is a fine line between that and bullying/abuse, on occasion).

Look at London's gang culture. People can't take a joke. Result - lots of shootings and violence.

In the workplace or general life; People get all arsey and try to sue for nothing. It's indicative of people's refusal to take responsibility for their own lives - instead of dealing with things between one another, this leads to people having pointless bureacracy, silly legal stuff and government legislation on issues that don't oncern them.

All in all, without teasing the world would be a poorer place.

AB - you tease people with clearly made up, terrible posts. Your mockery (while inspiring a load of divs that haven't got your ability, sadly) has got rid of a lot of the worst posts (and those from teens who have nothing to say). A clear benefit of teasing, from you, right there.

Your old posts about "rudder" - more teasing (and fairly hurtful to the victim no doubt, although very very funny)...

What happens at work - you're a nurse, in an NHS hospital, I believe; the people I know that work in hospitals are usually full of incredibly inappropriate jokes and comments, and are hideously rude to each other. This, I understand, makes a healthy working environment. Please do correct me if I'm wrong, but I cannot imagine you don't join in with banter; do you sit on the sidelines, making notes for the next staff meeting?
( disasterprone "Pyjamas caused the Holocaust", Tue 8 Feb 2011, 10:46, 1 reply)

Hear fucking
hear.

Being offended is a symptom of lacking the wit to retort.
( chart cat has an itch, Tue 8 Feb 2011, 15:21, closed)

Might I remind the honorable gentlemen of
this?
( Amorous Badger NAKED BEA ARTHUR PHOTOS 4U, Tue 8 Feb 2011, 16:23, closed)

Still true, all of it.
You ruined this site for me and a lot of veteran regulars. You were never cruel enough to offend me --few people are-- but you relentlessly and expertly deepthroated the fun out of my posting-cock till it could only spurt a dribble of sadness and disappointment. Your endless war of attrition and obsession with calling out popular posters drove away some entertaining writers. You're consumed by the notion that exaggeration or an imagination somehow gets in the way of a good story. It's the fucking opposite, by the way.

Still, you've built a loyal cult of feeble sycophants devoted to the wretched mission. As I recall, cliquishness was one of your main complaints about the old regular posters too... funny old world, hmm?
( chart cat has an itch, Wed 9 Feb 2011, 15:01, closed)

I like the Archive, and it does highlight some shockingly bad posts, and it's funny
But I agree with almost everything you say - the real problem isn't the AB archive, but the knobs who try to jump all over things that aren't pc or are indicative of opinions/activities they dislike or don't "get."

Try not to get too wound up though, the idiots go nowhere, and we have an ignore button too, if we want to use it. I don't, because I realise that anyone who posts 10,000+ messages a year on a web forum really should get out more, and because most of the people who pick up on this nonsense are fucking geeks (look at their pics!)
( disasterprone "Pyjamas caused the Holocaust", Thu 10 Feb 2011, 10:07, closed)