The Sacred & the Profane
Some things are sacred, as determined by region, time period, and personal taste. But Hollywood likes to occasionally push the boundaries, or at least test the waters. What do you consider sacred? What do you think there shouldn't be made a comedy about, or that we shouldn't laugh at, scornfully or not?
posted by Neal Paradise at 7:36 PM
6 Comments:
For what it's worth, I personally don't really laugh at things that hurt people, physically or otherwise. I think it'd be ideal to not laugh at things that are harmful to others, but that's a personal taste, not anything sacred.
I guess I'm against laughing at things that are considered tragic...like children dying or genocide or anything like that. It continues to surprise me what people will laugh at when the object is taken out of context.
Generally speaking, I would say "nothing", as in nothing should be sacred.
A case in point is the holocaust. In Israel it was pretty much a taboo as far as joke material was concerned. Then came along Roberto Benini's Life Is Beautiful, and suddenly we had ourselves a film on which quality you might argue, but still it was a respectable comedy dealing with the holocaust.
On the other hand, I wouldn't want to see people making films saying that gay people, gypsies, Jews, and Russian prisoners of war should be incinerated. Especially not when it's obvious enough people would be convinced by such a message. But that said, I would not prefer any form of censorship to tell me what films should be made and what shouldn't.
Another case is porn. I think the world would probably be a better place if we have less of it, but I don't think the issues being discussed in porn are in any way sacred.
So where am I heading for here? I want to say that I have a problem with the question. There's nothing sacred out there, but there are many things that are better off left alone.
I hope this made sense. I typed it in really early in the morning...
Uhhh, there's a few things I would
consider off-limits in regards to good taste in humor. The most obvious ones that come to my mind are:
-9/11
-The Holocaust
-The Armenian Massacre
-Cancer
i don't think you're quite understanding my question, Moshe. i mean "what is sacred" as in "what should we not laugh at." you cite Life is Beautiful, and that's a comedy and it's about the Holocaust. but in falls in-bounds because its tone is not "oh, those crazy Jews; what'll they do to get themselves slaughtered NOW?" it's setting was pretty dark, but it made you smile throughout. i'm not asking "what should there not be made a movie about" but rather "what would you feel uncomfortable with being presented in a derisive way?" perhaps my question should be rephrased...
I think I'd put myself in Moshe's "nothing is sacred" camp.
I'm not saying that everything is fair game, but I can't really say any one topic should NEVER be laughed about.
I'll throw out 9/11 as a case-in-point. In general, I agree with YRF that 9/11 is not really something that should be laughed about. But The Onion's coverage of the event three weeks later managed to be totally relevant and quite funny while remaining within the bounds of good taste.
So I guess I'd say everything needs to be taken on a case-by-case basis. Some things that should, in general, not be laughed about can be when looked at from certain angles. And, on the same token, jokes at the expense of something/someone seemingly made to be joked about--like, say, Donald Trump--can occasionally go too far.
I guess I would agree that there shouldn't be anything off-limits, as Moshe mentioned, as in censored or inappropriate to create. I do agree with YRF when he says "off-limits in regards to good taste in humor."
Looking at Life is Beautiful, yes it was about the holocaust, yes it was a comedy, but none of the humor centered on the genocide aspect. We laughed at Benini, not the deaths of the innocent people. So in this case, if the holocaust IS considered sacred, this film still didn't infringe upon that, IMO.
Again, since PM rephrased the question to "what would you be uncomfortable with being presented in a derisive way?" I think most of us could think of something.
As I said, I don't think that twisting human suffering into any kind of "joke" is funny. That's why I can't watch movies like Meet The Parents...it's not funny to me at all (even when fictional) if a person is hurt or rejected. I can't think of many movies that try to make terrible things (generally accepted as bad, e.g. torture) actually funny, so this might show better taste in Hollywood than we might initially think. But that might just be the fact that I haven't seen most movies.
This might make me seem a bit hypocritical, since one of my favorite genres is action, and this genre more and more frequently makes killing something humorous. But in those cases, those being killed are on screen for 2 seconds and clearly "don't matter" to the movie. Hypocritical or not, this doesn't really bother me. I blame it on desensitization.
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