How exactly was Bernie Mac's joke offensive to women?

Question

Here's the link:

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/bernie-mac-makes-off-color-joke-at-obama-event/10715?nc

Would you agree that some people are just super uptight?

Answer 1

No of course it's not offensive.  Some people just walk around all day with sand in their vaginas.  Even men.

Answer 2

Same reason I got reported on here 8 times last night.

Answer 3

it's not hugely offensive to me, but is it supposed to be funny?

Answer 4

I don't find it offensive, but I also fail to see what exactly is funny about it.  It's obviously in extremely poor taste given the venue and stuff like that has potential to reflect badly on Obama if he tolerates it.

McCain himself has made plenty of jokes which are extremely offensive (ie Chelsea Clinton joke), although his sense of humor is funny in a sick kind of way.  So I don't think that anyone offended by off-color jokes is going to be switching from Obama to McCain.

Answer 5

I don't think it is offensive to women, maybe people found it offensive because it involved a child asking about an adult subject.  But if we nit picked jokes, surly we would find many which would be seen as more offensive that this...many, many.

The only reason this is gaining publicity is because Obama said something and the only reason Obama said something was because 1 vote didn't like the joke...maybe it hit too close to home.  I often find this the case when people are offended by PG 13 comedy.  It's not like he was joking about rape, harming other people, or even insinuating any of the many "isms".

It would be interesting to see what would happen if a woman to a child to go ask a man this same question, replacing the milkman with a secretary of course.

EDIT- RESPONSE to johno

I hadn't see the whole joke until now.  But aren't w***e's by definition, people who have s*x for money?  He is actually doing women a favor.  Defining that the mother and the sister are whores means that not all women are whores, only the ones who are willing to have s*x for money.  It is not like he is asking if they will have s*x for dinner or a few drinks (like more "sexually empowered" women actually do).

Answer 6

I don't find it offensive, but classless. It was the wrong place and wrong time for a joke like that. But it is funny!!!

Answer 7

Sure some people are super uptight!  Since the article does not state the whole joke though it is impossible to see whether or not it is offensive to women.  

Personally I am not a big fan of Bernie Mac; I think his material just doesn't make me laugh.  However I think it is interesting that Obama invites him to perform and then makes the comment "We can't afford to be divided by race. We can't afford to be divided by region or by class and we can't afford to be divided by gender, which by the way, that means, Bernie, you've got to clean up your act next time," Obama said. "This is a family affair. By the way, I'm just messing with you, man."

Obama had to know exactly what kind of humor Bernie offers and that is exactly what he did.  Maybe it was a bad choice of comedians in a political arena.

Answer 8

I doubt it was offensive to women, but feminsts get offended at pretty much anything because its very obvious that feminists in general just have no sense of humour. (Why do they find this so hard to admit?). However a man who declares himself a feminist in public is pretty much doing a stand up routine!  No, this was a weak joke but only a feminist could be offended by it.

Answer 9

As if the father wouldn't have s*x with a secretary or a nurse for $500,000...but the father wouldn't be called a "w***e" for feeling that way, would he?  No, only women are called "whores" for having these kinds of sentiments.  Bullsh*t double standards.

Answer 10

Yeah some people are to uptight, I found the whole joke, it's funny:

A little boy goes up to his father and asks: "Dad, what's the difference between hypothetical and reality?"

The father replies: "Well son, I could give you the book definitions, but I feel it could be best to show you by example. Go upstairs and ask your mother if she'd have s*x with the mailman for $500,000."

The boy goes and asks his mother: "Mom, would you have s*x with the mailman for $500,000?" The mother replies: "h**l yes I would!"

The little boy returns to his father: "Dad, she said 'h**l yes I would!'"

The father then says: "Okay, now go and ask your older sister if she'd have s*x with her principal for $500,000."

The boy asks his sister: "Would you have s*x with your principal for $500,000?" The sister replies: "h**l yes I would!"

He returns to his father: "Dad, she said 'h**l yes I would!'"

The father answers: "Okay son, here's the deal: Hypothetically, we're millionaires, but in reality, we're just living with a couple of whores."

EDIT @ The Mrs yeah I agree with you, it isn't offensive to ALL women just whores.

EDIT: La Belle what did you block me for?

Answer 11

If it wasn't offensive, it was a comedy act for heavens sake, the audience should expect to be offended, and all of the women who thought it was offensive are hypocrites.

If a female performer said that about a stay-at-home husband and a female mail carrier, would it be taken offensively? I think not.

Answer 12

I think people should be focusing more on the fact that in today's society people in committed relationships are being unfaithful. i don't think bernie was saying women are whores, i think he was saying that alot of people, regardless of s*x, cheat. if bernie mac were a woman, the joke would replace "mother" with "father."

Answer 13

It isn't offensive. People need to lighten up.

Answer 14

It implied that any given woman is a cheater. No matter if it offended YOU or not, it's not the kind of thing to be used as a lead-in for a political speech.

Answer 15

as if the father or the son wouldn't have s*x with the mailman for 500,000 dollars? Why is this left out of the "joke"?

It's ignorant, it's stupid, it's main goal is to make women look like whores, which is the typical black mindset concerning women anyway.

Obama is very correct to want to distance himself from that kind of ghetto bullcrap.

Answer 16

I've heard FAR more offensive things than his relatively funny joke.

Some people need something to be upset about I guess. Personally I think people take themselves and life far too seriously.

If we censored everything that someone thought was offensive then guess what, there wouldn't be any jokes to tell.

If we can't laugh at ourselves and the world around us then what can we laugh at?

Answer 17

It's a joke for pete sake. Get over it. If you can't laugh at yourself, you got a problem.

Answer 18

People are going crazy these days. Jokes aren't meant to be offensive.

Answer 19

It is not offensive, it is just such a dumb joke. Didn't even make me smile, but then again different people have different senses of humor and different people laugh at different things. May be somebody else would find it funny.

EDIT: the undertaker, by the way, the person who got up from the crowd saying it was offensive to women was a man.

Answer 20

It's a tired old joke, and not that funny.  I get it.

Not offended.

Yes, some people are prudes, and many don't have any sense of humor or appreciation of the absurd.  I see that around here ALL THE TIME !

Edit.  After reading the entire joke from Johnno, I can see why people were offended.  Calling women whores is not funny.  It's low class, and the joke was highly inappropriate for the crowd.  

I don't think that it denigrates women, per se, but if he had said, "we're just living with a couple of loose women," then it would have been better received.  I mean, he wasn't speaking to the $3.00 crown in the ghetto.

Answer 21

I don't find it offensive, but I don't find it funny either.  I do, however, think it was just plain ignorant implying that it was an appropriate response to a male child.

Answer 22

You don't see that?  You did note they could not print the entire monologue.  No people aren't too uptight. Some peoples sense of humor is lacking in class and decorum.

Answer 23

Of course the men on here won't get why this is offensive.  And of course, people who do find this offensive are uptight.  Sure.  Well...all I can say is this is what you get when you give a black man power.   Oh...just joking--sure hope nobody's uptight enough to find that offensive.

Answer 24

Dr. D, it's not offensive. Some people have no sense of humour. Super uptight is an understatement. Some people get offended very easily, and go down like they've been shot if you so much as breathe on them. It's just life.

I think you know this already. Feminists (YA users in particular, as you will know) are experts in taking offence to anything. Men never once respond to jokes that make them look bad.

I doubt Bernie Mac's choice of material would have been criticized if this joke was told:

"A genie granted three men wishes. One wanted to be rich, another strong and the third smart. The first got a mountain of $100 notes, the second got muscles like Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the third was changed into a woman"

While this implies that men are stupid, I doubt Bernie Mac would have been vilified for saying it. I know many jokes worse than this that imply men are born cheaters and the like, but again, I doubt Bernie Mac would be vilified if he said those. If a man stood up and protested, he's be told to "chill out and be a man". It happens all the time in school.

Putting women in a negative light is unacceptable, but it's perfectly OK to make men the butt of the joke.

You only have to ask how many people think a woman beating a man for no reason is 'female empowerment and/or comedy' instead of plain violence to know I am right.

Answer 25

he supports obama because obama is black, so he's open to any criticism.

Answer 26

It implies that any woman is a cheating w***e.