Thanks for the detailed response. I'll tuck it away as data for my informal survey.

I discovered Kathleen Madigan a couple of years ago and loved her. I don't know why she isn't more well known. I get pretty bored by most stand up -- Louis CK being an exception. Thanks for the link -- I'm definitely going to watch it.

And thanks for taking me at face value. Really refreshing.

Great comment. As someone who grew up in Ireland my only exposure to the flag was on the General Lee. And it's a car that jumps over bridges. That's cool. How can you not love that when you're 7?

It wasn't until years later when I happened to watch a rerun of Dukes that I actually made the connection.

First thought: wow, that is fucked up.

But hey, people were a little racist in the 70s (and 80s too). Hell, everyone was a lot homophobic in the 80s and 90s.

That's no excuse to learn and move on.

TL;DR: the A-team was better anyway.

I insta-upvoted when I heard Louis CK doing a voice over!

Meh, Seinfeld is bent out of shape because he made an unfunny joke and is now looking to blame it on the phantom "PC police".

Meanwhile, Louis CK can do a bit on SNL about racism and pedophilia and it fucking killed.

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?! Did he say that?! I missed some of it, so I really am asking. If HE said that's true, I'll take his word. What I said about his admitting he's mildly racist' above he actually said himself.

http://videosift.com/video/Louis-CK-Probably-wont-be-Invited-back-to-SNL-after-this
EDIT: Oh, I see now @heropsycho, you were just being smarmy and stupidly disingenuous...at least I hope...because if you were serious with that, you can't be very smart.
Because he talked about others being molesters doesn't make him one...because he talks about himself BEING racist, he is one.
Because you pretend your level of racism doesn't make you at all racist just makes you a liar...to yourself.

Not to beat a dead horse, but on tonight's SNL, Louis CK talked about how he is racist, but a low level racist, because he does notice that people are of different races. It was as if he had been reading our conversation.

I'm not thinking in binary. There's gray area.

There's no debate about the fact that virtually everyone is somewhat racist. This isn't a debate about that.

I'm saying making any joke that is related to race isn't racist every single time, just as avoiding saying anything that could be construed as racist doesn't mean you're absolved of being a racist.

A joke that is actually racist is expressing an idea or feeling of one race's superiority over another directly or indirectly through humor.

Ironically making racial statements that I absolutely don't believe is NOT racist because I'm not expressing racial superiority. I'm pointing out the idiocy of racism and poking fun at racists.

About the random black person overhearing my joking, yeah, they'd be offended. Thank you for making my point. They'd be offended precisely because they heard those words out of context.

If you saw a grown man say this to a little girl sternly:

"...go cry me a river..."

You might be inclined to think he was acting like a jerk to her. But what if you had heard....

"It's a figure of speech. If you ever for example hear someone say 'go cry me a river', they don't actually mean one person's tears can be that much water."

It's the SAME THING. That man did nothing wrong, but you heard him say 'go cry me a river' to a little girl without context, it may look bad, when it's not.

Just because someone may get offended by hearing something out of context, it is not automatically something wrong with what that person said.

Even the dreaded N-word... Are you telling me that it was wrong and racist for Mark Twain to use it in The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin?

The one thing I would agree with you is that you also have to be mindful of context before saying the joke. Those racial jokes I make? I'm not going to say those in situations where there's a high likelihood that those statements could be overheard and misinterpreted. If I wanted to tell those to a black person, I'd make REALLY sure they knew I didn't actually believe the racial statement.

And you know what? Usually, it turns out fine. I've played that Louis CK thing for a black friend of mine, but I laid down the context first that it's Patrice O'Neal, etc. And they laughed hysterically at it.

Richard Pryor is considered by most comics as being a pioneer in using comedy to shed light and provide insights into racial tensions, etc., and actually is credited by many people far beyond just comedians to have helped further the cause of fighting against racism.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5048430

His use of the N-word wasn't racist. The use of the word was communicating that he was not Bill Cosby, not that there was anything wrong with Cosby's comedy, but it was to signal that he was talking more about reality, including the rough edges especially about racial topics, and there wasn't anything wrong with that either.

The kill somebody thing. You ever seen someone say something like, "My roommate AGAIN left all the lights on! I'm gonna kill him!"? My point there is you shouldn't call the cops because you think he's homicidal.

You tell me how this is racist...

Actual racist: "Black people can't be leaders."
Obama overhears it and responds: "Yeah, f'ing Obama!"

I'm pretty sure that despite Obama "playing around with" language that could be construed as racist, what he said would not be considered racist by pretty much anyone. It would be pretty damn funny actually because clearly Obama wouldn't sincerely say that about himself, nor black people, and it also pokes fun at that racist statement by pointing out there's a black person who is President of the United States, so clearly black people can be leaders.

Change Obama to David Duke, and yeah, it's now probably racist, and it's not funny at all.

Or this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gHz-l40FNQ

Louis CK is saying that in response to Patrice O'Neal's factual account for the origin of a racial slur against Jewish people. Louis CK was very good friends with the late O'Neal, and he's not racist. O'Neal knew that. If you listen to the video, as soon as Louis CK starts his bit before anything that's faux-racist comes out, everyone is immediately laughing, including O'Neal, because they know he's about to insincerely say something horrifically racist to the face of a black person that had he been sincere, it would have been absolutely horrifying, but that's the point - he's absolutely not sincere. That's why it's absolutely hilarious and not racist because everybody knows Louis CK doesn't actually mean that at all.

Intent and context means a lot. When you take that context away, (other things said in that conversation, who is saying it, your knowledge about what they believe, previous conversations that might be references, etc.), the words can appear to be extremely racist, even when they're not.

How do I react when someone jokes about something that involves race? It completely depends on the context, and what I interpret the intent of it is. If I'm joking around generally with my friends like the above, and they say something like, "You know why black people smell? So blind people can hate them, too." We're in a situation we're joking, we already have had actual sincere conversations about race, I know he isn't racist, I know he actually believes that's 100% not true. How do I react? If I found the joke funny, I'd laugh because I'm taking it to mean he's making fun of what some racists believe because I know for a fact he doesn't believe that.

My father-in-law is a different story, because I know the guy, I know he's like a 5-6 on the racist scale, so I don't know if he actually believes black people generally stink or not, and generally inclined to believe he actually believes most or all black people smell. At the very least, I'm uneasy. I'm certainly not going to laugh at it. I'd probably show some kind of disapproval at the least. Completely different context because now, and here's the key, that may have been intended as an actual racist statement about black people. Once you go there, that's not funny.

So, if you consider me slightly racist because I make ironic racist statements as jokes, which I mean as mocking towards racists themselves, rock on. But you better be consistent in your outrage when someone exaggerates they're gonna kill someone when they get frustrated over something insignificant as an example. After all, that's playing around with words that are murderous and violent, so they must be a psychopath or homicidal!

Please note, that was sarcasm.

Louis CK is a god!

Nigger was a feeling...


Just as Chris Rock says there are black people then their are niggers
There are also whites and white trash/rednecks

The great Baltimore chimpout shows bad side of stereotypes.

I'll give blacks one thing, even the criminals in Baltimore destroying heir own city and being put down like Korean grocer killed looter last week. They come together.

If whites came together and rioted we'd overthrow the government!
The last times whites came together in mass, we overthrew King George's rule on America. Via terrorism, burning buildings, bombing ammo dumps, guerilla war that redcoats had never fought before.

Louis CK was just plane racist.
Patrice O'Neil was at least providing historic origin.

Many sifters just think wow that was funny and don't even acknowledge their own racist bias.

Oh it was just comedy. no harm done. really?

Holeeeee shit... he did that in front of Patrice Oneal?
The balls on this guy... Louis CK has to be magic. Think about it, could ANYone else pull this off?

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