"Neither of the jokes is funny. Both are derived from Howard Stern, and they were funnier when he did them... ten years or more ago. The first "joke" recalls his question about the plane in DC that crashed into a building: "Will this be a regularly scheduled stop in the future?" (or something like that)."

It was the Air Florida (now AirTrans?) plane that crashed into the 14th St. Bridge. And, what I remember was him calling reservations and asking for a 1 way ticket to the bridge, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, those jokes aren't even shocking enough to be funny. We often joke about horrible experiences to deal with pain. But she doesn't have the irony or the awareness to actually address the pain and bring out our sympathies for her humor.

Just sad. In fact, watching her act is like watching Jay Feeley kick.

I wouldn't say it's that bad.

Ace - Sure you're not thinking of the Howard Stern joke about the Air Florida crash in '82?? He got fired from the station (DC101) for calling Air Florida and asking for a ticket to the 14th Street Bridge... Was picked up in NY soon after that.

Yes, that's what I was thinking of. I've corrected the reference.

Have you actually seen the movie?

I'd say she's probably my favorite female comic. But then I think

I once made a joke here about crippled people no longer wanting to be called "crippled" or "handicapped," but preferring the more politically-correct and sensitive term "People With Retarded Spines and Legs."

It's a joke I'd expect from Silverman. Man, those other jokes were lame, though.

Ace--

I saw her movie yesterday. Like you, I was a big Silverman fan-- still am (hell, she's got the best punchline in The Aristocrats)--- but her concert film is pretty tepid. There are a few good jokes here and there, but few that induce much more than guffaws.

I will give Silverman credit, however, for at least staying awaying from typical female "humor." The fact that she's making the same jokes *I* would make instead of jokes about her period or how men hog the remote earns her a gold star, even if she's not as sharp or edgy as she once was.

But hey, as you well know, Ace, it's hard to be funny all the time. Maybe she's just having a bad year (paradoxically in her breakthrough year-- bad timing, that).

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

someone,

No, but I hear bad things.

That's a shocking statement in 2002,

not so much in 2005.

Sarah Silverman doing a schtick about how she would perform in the safety conscious travel industry or in a homeland security jobs might work.

For example she could riff about how she was recently fired as an American Airlines flight attendant for doing the preflight checklist:

In the event that a large building appears in front of our plane, please wait for the aircraft to come to a complete stop before retrieving items from your overhead compartment.

Exit the aircraft calmly and take the building's elevator to the ground floor ..

Sarah Silverman doing an impersonation of Dennis Miller calling from a hijacked flight might be funny.

"These sons of Islam just took over the plane like they took over Jerusalem during the Third Crusade. Good thing I'm sitting next to a Gus, a modern day Knight Templar. We're going to take the flight back like it's a sweater on December 26th.

Ciao."

Nah.

.

I'd do her.

The joke that straddles the line was the Onion headline from the 90s:

"Study Finds Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Caused by Bad Parents Who Could Have Dones Something"

I thought it was hilarious then, and now that I have a 17 month old child, I still think it's hilarious. I imagine, however, that if my kid died of SIDS, I might be stung by the joke, but I wouldn't complain since it is so brilliant.

Silverman's can be funny. She does that joke about being raped by a doctor, "which, for a jewish girl, is so bittersweet." But a lot of her stuff is just trading on "O my gosh, I just said something outrageous. And I'm a girl!"

A lot of her cred comes from her sex, which is sort of annoying cause Comedy, like science, stand on it's own based on results. You're either laughing or you're not. People are trying too hard to laugh at her as of late cause they like the idea of an outrageous chick.

OK, mayber a chick doing the same 'outrageous' joke is inherently funnier cause she's a chick, like an old lady swearing up a blue streak is funnier cause, well she's an old lady, but I'd prefer it if she just told funnier jokes more often.

Re: offensive Onion op-eds, this one is still my fave.

And another classic here.

I dunno what the most offensive thing I ever wrote on my site was, but I've only ever gotten one (legitimate) "over the line" comment, and it was to my posting about the Rosie O'Donnell short bus movie.

I wrote:

"Because, really, there are few things I enjoy more in life than picking on retarded people.

Excuse me-- I mean *fake* retarded people. Real retarded people: not funny. Unless they fall down a lot; then they're fucking hilarious."

That pissed some folks off for some reason.

I still don't know why.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

Another aspect of the equation is how uptight or reality deprived or full of themselves or hypocritical or powerful the victims of a joke are. Children and retards deserve sympathy because they (usually) lack all of these qualities.

Assholes like PETA on the other hand have high amounts of all of these qualities, which is why no joke on PETA can be too offensive, in my opinion.

I saw a show on one of the newsmagazines about a paraplegic cartoonist who regularly offends people who don't know he's paraplegic. Sorry, I don't remember his name. His paraplegic fans fall out of their wheelchairs laughing. My favorite is a sheriff and posse in the middle of nowhere (cactus, cow skulls), looking at a wheel chair overturned in the sand. The sheriff says, "Well, he won't get far on foot."
In another cartoon, very poorly drawn, not much better than stick figures, a man walking a dog. The caption is "That's the last time I'm gonna be drawn by an equal-opportunity cartoonist."

The there's the annoying issue of members of a subculture barring outsiders from certain jokes, but insiders doing it is OK (like Chris Rock using the N word to make fun of/castigate certain blacks). Perhaps the parapeligics in question were laughing because they knew one of their own was writing the joke.

There is not a single joke on the face of the earth that does not potentially offend someone, somewhere, even The Family Circus. (Okay, especially The Family Circus.)

The greatest sin of humor, which Ace touches upon, is to not be funny. “Causing offense" doesn't even make the top 20.

Bill, the quadriplegic cartoonist is John Callahan, http://www.callahanonline.com

>>Lately she just seems to be phoning it in with Wonkette humor -- "I'm cute and female, I'm talking about anal sex, isn't that incongrous and shocking?"

Bingo. She's over before she ever got started.

Those Callahan cartoons are quite funny, which more than makes up for the fact that they make Ted Rall's crap look well drawn.

Retarded spine and legs. I'm still laughing.

When people talk about some subjects being inherently unfunny because they're depressing or offensive or whatever, I always think of the second sketch on the first episode of SNL (unless the "feed your fingertips to the wolverines...Live, from New York" bit counts as a sketch). A rape joke that will make your mama laugh out loud.

Not comfortable with the Wonkette comparison, Silverman really IS cute, and Jewish, hence racially superior to Wonkette, who I assume is some kind of Mick or something.