What makes racism funny?

Question

Now I know a lot of people find racism hilarious. Some even base the majority of their jokes on the denigration of other races. I guess what I'd like to know is, why do we find racist jokes so amusing? A friend of mine told me and a group of friends a story about a black person being raped last week, and everyone instinctively laughed. But later, when I thought about it, I started to analyze why exactly everyone laughed so hard. If a black person had been there at the time, he'd have been offended. People dying or being raped just because of their race or ethnicity isn't as funny as it first seems. It's as though we're able to distance ourselves from their suffering in order to focus on the humor. People think AIDS is a funny disease because it's rife in Africa, but if it were rife in Europe, people wouldn't laugh. I think maybe it's a saftey valve: people can more easily discharge their darker impulses when they feel they have less in common with the object of their joke. Foreign races provide that opportunity. So I'd like to know some other opinions on the matter. Thanks.

Answer 1

Stupid things are always funny, racism is stupidity and stupidity often results in humor,

example: A kid falls off his bike and the tire hits him in the crotch because he was looking a girl's behind and lost control of the bike.

Most people would laugh at that.

Answer 2

           Seems 2 me you've already answered your own question.........

Racist jokes & epitaphs are never funny & in our society the sooner we

make 'the jokers' & 'race haters' obsolete, the better!!!

                                                                                     Cat

Answer 3

Where I came from, I was raised in the ghetto, and its a world of difference because its so diverse. So I was raised with Asians, Mexicans, Blacks, Some Whites, and Africans of all kinds (Ethiopians, Somalis). We use to bag on each other all the time about each other's ethnicities and laugh about it, but the reason why we did is out of respect for one another. I know it sounds strange and doesn't make sense, but that was the only way you could overcome the higher power when they have suppressed you. When you laugh about certain things like "Asians being bad drivers" or "Blacks loving chicken" it loses its power as an insult. However, rape and AIDS isn't funny at all and is a different matter. I don't agree with some racist jokes but I don't let them get to me.

Answer 4

Why did bassets take the black jelly babies out of the packets? because everytime someone put their hand in, they would get their watch stolen!

Boom boom!

Answer 5

Good question, most black comedians can't even have a routine without putting down white people, but yet people laugh.

Answer 6

I am unsure what kind of people you hang with, but nobody I have ever known has found it funny or used it at someone else's expense. As for the "stereotype" jokes, those are usually used in humor by comedians of the race they are making fun of. Whites making fun of whites, blacks making fun of blacks. But AIDS and rape? Never heard anything attempted as a joke with either of those.

Answer 7

I don't think anything makes racism funny. I do agree that it's easier to laugh at something that doesn't hit so close to home. Maybe humor is a way to disguise uneasiness? I'm not really sure either. Good point about AIDS, too. People would call it the "second black death".