Jokes certainly do have structures, Danny, and you even read the first link on google to see what I'm talking about. Watch any comedian and you'll see them using these same techniques in their routine, and it's funny for exactly the reasons they give, being the twist, the punchline, whatever. But when you simply interject a statement like "And by the way, you look like a cocaine dealer" into your story, it's not really a joke anymore so much as a simple insult. I know that I dislike O'Reilly, and I'll be harder on him that I would be on someone else doing the same thing, but it's still true. You can watch other shows like Stewart's of Bill Mahr's and see them make jokes at the expense of someone's race, and not come across as a complete asshat like Bill does here.

>> ^ShakyJake:

Danny, the trouble I had with the clip is that if I imagine something like this coming from someone like Jon Stewart, I imagine the joke to have a certain structure. There would be a setup, a twist, and then a punchline, and it would certainly have no similarity to the "joke" told here. Coming from Bill, it just sounds like the kind of mean-spirited quip you'd hear on an elementary playground, where the goal is less focused on being funny and more so on getting a cheap shot in on someone just for the sake of it.
I don't even know if he does this stuff consciously, anymore. Take any interview he's ever had with someone with a potentially opposing stance from his and he comes across as extremely demeaning almost as part of a natural reflex. Pinheads!


2 things:

1) I don't know where you've imagined this formal joke structure from. Humour comes in so many different shapes and sizes, i've heard (on tv, in public) and said almost identical comments that were intended in jest and recieved in jest. If i said this to a black person and they told me i was racist, not only would they be absolutely wrong, but i'd be racist if i DIDN'T say it just because they were black.

2) Ok, he may have a reputation, but if you judge everything he ever says based on that reputation, when is there ever a chance for redemption? I'd rather chastise him for every wrong thing he's ever said than accidentally chastise him for something he says that isn't wrong. Because then we're punishing good behaviour and the puppy is less likely to behave well in the future.

And geo321 - so there ...weren't any races before the british empire, or..? And is "race" a bad thing? It's surely an identifying characteristic, but i don't know why you feel opposed to the idea of people having a race. Should we stop referring to hair colour, eye colour, native language too?