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Comment by alanbernstein | Hacker News Reader

Really? I'm not sure if I could think of a single off-limits topic in standup comedy.

any recent tragedy. eg, the vegas shooting would probably not fly too well.

Sure it can. One joke was about how there was a video of the vegas shooting, and there was a guy running out of the frame with a full beer, as if shielding the beer was the most important thing in that situation. "The beer must've been pretty expensive... But the shots were free."

It's tasteless, yeah. But it's comedy. It's hard to say there are limits.

If someone tells a joke and nobody laughs, was it a joke?

Well, judging by the upvotes, I'd say it got a few. :)

IIRC Gilbert Gottfried made a 9/11 joke very soon after it happened (though that was generally agreed to be in poor taste).

[edit] It was 18 days after 9/11 at the Friars club roast of Hugh Hefner

Also, I recall a celebrity had a dead crocodile hunter costume for Halloween (Irwin died in September).

[edit] It was Bill Maher.

> IIRC Gilbert Gottfried made a 9/11 joke very soon after it happened (though that was generally agreed to be in poor taste).

So it didn't fly?

Norm McDonald also made a routine about Steve Irwin's death in the Daily Show a couple days after it happened.

I think that bit was awesome. Norm MacDonald is a great comedian, and he can deliver everything just perfectly.

That's a perfect example of a comedian taking something supposedly solemn and turning it funny. Kind of like when a chef takes an off-cut of meat and turns it into something delicious.

There are many. The Holocaust is definitely off-limits. That's just one example.

Really? Tell that to Mel Brooks and Sarah Silverman. [1][2] Comedians routinely joke about the holocaust, and have for decades.

1: https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/the-thing-abou...

2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8z5wBwY5Zw

What about child porn? Pedophilia? Human trafficking?

I'm utterly confident that if I looked I could find examples of comedians telling jokes about those subjects and audiences laughing.

For example, I just searched Google for "comedian pedophilia joke" and the first result is about Louis C.K. doing one during an SNL monologue.

Nothing is off limits in comedy. Plenty of stuff is in bad taste, but as long as the comedian is actually trying to be funny I think most or at least many other comedians will back them up.

There’s plenty of jokes about the abuse of children by the church.

You'd be surprised. Tons of major professional comedians have jokes about the holocaust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGfDXMnQw7g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewY3xgqlKPY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieDNGCIZogA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6E9sJ6B-u8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2_HbqPpQDk

You've definitely been added to a list somewhere for all those searches, lol.

There's a long-running Holocaust denial joke in most episodes of Norm Macdonald Live that's hilarious. You're just not watching enough comedy if you don't think anyone makes Holocaust jokes.

Mitchell and Webb sketch about nazi SS death squad is one of the best one, and often quoted by other comedians.

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