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Tragedy and Comedy

User Thread
 38yrs • M •
HarshTranquil is new to Captain Cynic and has less than 15 posts. New members have certain restrictions and must fill in CAPTCHAs to use various parts of the site.
Tragedy and Comedy
I was at a comedy club last night, having consecutive pints of Guinness and watching an adequately amusing comedian. He was actually pretty good until he started into impressions *puke*. Anyway, he had one good bit about Halloween candy, wherein he referred to those inedible orange and black witch-candies as devices used on Jews by the Nazis in 1943. Everyone under 35 laughed to the point of tears, and most of the people at my table (including myself) -lost it-. It was a good setup and a mighty fine delivery. But everyone over that 35 mark was appalled, like, seriously offended. I was confuzzled. So my question is, when will The The Holocaust be funny?

I present to you my scientific findings. The math will be off a bit because I am an arts student

The evidence: Monty Python, c. 1980s. A considerably hilarious sketch satirizing the Italian and Spanish inquisitions. Well received by viewers and completely accepted by society.
I don't have a link for it, but Jon Stewart (a personal hero of mine) had a great segment making fun of the inquisition from the viewpoint of the Catholic Church- I laughed so hard that I almost puked.

The statistics:
•The Holy Inquisitions: 24-28 million Jews, Protestants, Pagans, Agnostics and Atheists tortured and burned alive, sometimes for days (or even weeks) without a break for religious and political purpose. This method is my favorite. Another popular method was putting the heretic (any non-Catholic) in a suspended spiked bull-shaped cage in a metropolitan center and over the course of 3 days burn the individual to death with torches. Many did their good Catholic duty and threw stones, just to help out. Occurred over 300 years. Ended 110 years ago.

•The Holocaust: 6 million Jews, Rovers, and enemies of the state killed in a comparitively merciful fasion in a mass genocide for ideological purpose. All those involved were charged with Crimes Against Humanity by the UN and in many cases put to death. You know the rest. Occurred over 5 years. Ended 50 years ago.

T.H.I. happened twice as long ago, but 4x as many people died. So is time more important than life? Mathematically and logically T.H. should have been socially acceptable as comedy by now!

My point is, why is are the Holy Inquisitions acceptable as objects of hilarity, and yet the Holocaust is still offensive and forbidden ground? Surely most people find violence funny, or slapstick comedies and Scary Movie would not exist.

When George Bush and 200 million Republicans tell us that Missile Defense is right and "hate-mongering brown people" are wrong, we tell them where to put their bullshit. So why do we feel that we must conform with society, and the culture set before us? When a teacher or professor or news anchor gives us biassed information, we filter out the subjective bullshit. Why is it so different when a larger number of people feed us the same bullshit?

Expand your filter.

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"Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
Tragedy and Comedy
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