Counterpoint: You can joke about whatever the hell you want, no one is stopping you. You just have to be able to deal with the blowback from people who might take offense (those people can say whatever the hell they want, too – see how it works?).

“South Park,” Howard Stern, and others say what they want all the time. Did you see “Django Unchained,” yet? Lots of controversy with the language and racial themes in that film, but I haven’t seen any rioting over it. I see Gavin posted an “All in the Family” clip. Is the humor in a contemporary show like “Family Guy” that much different? I’d say “Family Guy” goes further sometimes. And wasn’t Gavin offended by Jamie Foxx saying he gets to “Kill all the white people” on SNL? He was joking dude, can’t people make a joke anymore? Oh, I get it – double standard because a white guy couldn’t say that. Wasn’t there a SNL skit in the 70′s where Garret Morris sang “Kill all the whities I see?” I think it was the same season that Chevy Chase plays word association with Richard Pryor and says the N-word. So the big gripe is white people can’t make black jokes anymore? That’s news to me.

Some people might boycott, write letters, or blog posts if they see some book/tv show/movie that offends their sensibility. Big deal. You need to quit whining as if it’s 1993 and someone told you for the frist time that a male airline stewardess wants to be called a “flight attendent.”

And really, who cares if someone else writes a blog post accusing you of being racist/sexist/whatever? I understand that’s a strong accusation to make, but are we incapable of defending ourselves? You have to know you’re putting yourself out there if you joke around with sensitive topics, but other writers/entertainers do it all the time. It just takes a little backbone.

Do you really think no one took offense to that O’Rourke article? Or Saturday Night Live or any other 70′s-era entertainment? Never, until the 90′s?

This reminds me of the whole “Girls” thing that happened when that show came out – Gavin got all upset because a few people said it didn’t feature any black characters and thus is racist (similar criticisms had been made about “Seinfeld” and “Friends” when they were on, so it’s not exactly a new issue with TV/movie casting – Gavin just took it personally because his friend works on the show), but that show still somehow carries on in the face of (horrors!) critical blog posts from mostly jealous people who wish they were having their moment.

And Gavin acts as if this is exclusively the domain of liberals who are the PC thought police. Sure, there are wet blankets on the left, but remember the people who tried to ban “The Simpsons,” “Natural Born Killers,” Howard Stern’s show (when he was on terrestrial radio), were conservatives who thought it was ruining our culture with sex and violence. The people who tried to ban Elvis and thought that rock music and punk or heavy metal was the tool of the devil were conservative. What do you have to say about conservatives who want to limit other people’s expression? Or do you only get pissed if liberals do it?

Gavin, if you want to make a joke then just do it. Be like Trey Parker – do something so funny that no one can hear the complaints from offended people over the laughter. “South Park” and “Book of Mormon” both had their share of controversy, and the creators of those shows have talked about censorship and dealing with the fallout from offended viewers, but I don’t see Parker writing the same essay every week about he’s unable to do his work and everyone’s humorless these days.

What really incenses me about the death of comedy is that nobody cares. Where was the outrage when that guy got fired for using “A Chink in the Armor”? When the PMRC came out people wanted to kill Tipper Gore. Ice T had legions of people on his side when Body Count came out with “Cop Killer.” Today, when someone gets censored, we all say, “oops” and shrug our shoulders.

I watched “The Burn” with Jeff Ross last night cuz I was stoned and adam carolla and michael ian black were guests, and it was basically a straight half hour block of racial jokes. tosh.o also pushes whatever buttons it likes, though to be fair I guess most of what’s on that show doesn’t qualify as a joke.

The reason the african cartoon makes us react differently is probably rooted in the fact that, of the 3 races listed, they are the only ones who endured any mass slavery in the past couple of hundred years, and the only ones who were living under a unequivocally racist laws as little as 50 years ago. The days of actual racism are recent enough to make blacks flip out over joking racism because they fear the slippery slope. If attitudes like the one expressed in the cartoon become commonplace again, maybe outright racist laws and behaviors will also become acceptable again is the fear. You can make fun of scotts and canadians all day long and never would there ever be any cause for genuine worry that systematic discrimination might start to be enacted towards either group.

That said, obviously roughly 88% of racial jokes about blacks made are no big whoop. I think what makes this cartoon particularly shocking is how close it comes to describing the actual truth of how fucked up so many indigenous africans are, despite articulating it in an especially crude way and throwing out some really old school epithets. The fact that it’s got so much truth in it, while also resembling classic racist propaganda makes you feel like a legitimate racist for a minute and that’s what’s really offensive.

Mostly White Christians? Really? Have you ever SEEN South Park?

What kills me is how people expect an automatic conciliatory response when they say that they’re ‘offended’.

You’re offended? Okay? Who gives two fucks?

You’ve got Louis C.K. Going around saying nigger and telling Jon Stewart that true comedy is hating on the Jews and you’re getting worked up over Fawlty Towers being censored? Get the DVDs and write better material.

I think funny is funny and we shouldn’t regulate speech or thought.

That said, Angus Young comparing “no means no” to societal restrictions on consensual sex is seriously retarded. I’m not offended by comedy ever, but I am always offended by shitty logic. Seriously, if you can’t figure out the difference between “no sex before marriage” which limits your individual right to make your own choices, and “no means no” which limits your right to rape someone, just give up trying to understand things because you’re not up to it genetically.