I asked on several Usenet newsgroups: 'When is humor about sex funny?' You

can read the article I wrote with the help of some responses under the title

'Sex and Humour: Q's and A's'



Here's more 'wit and wisdom' on the subject:



I think a lot of it has to do with the intent of

the person telling the joke and the audience.

People sometimes claim that feminists and Lesbian

activists have no sense of humor.  Reading a

Lesbian-friendly "insider's" comic strip like

"Dykes To Watch Out For" or a comic about gay

people by a gay man, like "Wendel," shows that

gays and Lesbian-feminist activists can indeed

laugh at themselves, and even some of the same

absurdaties that hostile straight bigots tell

"attack jokes"  (like Carter's "joke" about

Robinson) about.  But when a hostile straight

person tells a joke obviously intended to

belittle and insult gay people, it is not

funny except to clueless bigots.  The same is

true about jokes on any subject.  "Blonde"

jokes or jokes about housewives and women in

general, are funny when told by blondes or

written about by a woman humorist, as in "For Better

Or Worse."  "Blonde" jokes -- or jokes about any

group, or any subject, including sex, are not funny

when they are told to laugh *at* the subject,

not laugh *with* the people the joke is about.



~~~



"Lord, what's a headache?"



This joke was told to me in seminary, by the teacher who taught us

counselling.  I told it some years later as part of a sermon on why

pre-marital counselling improved marriages.  I was reprimanded

afterwards by someone for telling vulgar stories in church.



The reality is that attitudes to sex vary even more than attitudes

to humour.



~~~



'I think sex is not funny when it delves into the 'mechanics''



Like heterosexual married couples who practising cunnilingus and fellatio or

mutual masturbation or anal sex?



'Also when it transcends social mores.'



Crap! Think Lenny Bruce / Chaucer and Shakespeare.



~~~



Sex is funny.  It proves that God has a sense of humour.



Why don't evangelicals mention the fact that C S Lewis told dirty jokes all

his life (including after his conversion)?  ... attested to in "In Search of

C S Lewis" edited by Stephen Schofield (Bridge Publishing, New Jersey)



I recommend reading:



"The Bastard From The Bush" poem attributed to Henry Lawson (see below)



Francois Rabelais "Gargantua and Pantagruel" (Penguin:1955)



"The Essential Lenny Bruce" Edited by John Cohen (Panther:1975) ... listen

to Bob Dylan's comment on Lenny Bruce (lyrics below)



Look also at the life of St Simeon who danced in the street with prostitutes

and St Basil the Blessed who walked naked through Moscow throwing stones at

the houses of the respectable citizens.



Some quotes from Howard Jacobson "Seriously Funny: From the ridiculous to

the sublime" (Viking: 1997) ...



... from the blurb ...



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Comedy has always used obscenity, viscious insults and vengefulness to

reveal a great liberating truth about ourselves:'We resemble beasts more

closely than we resemble gods, and we make great fools of ourselves the

moment we forget it.' (quoting p. 2)



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Comedy, Aristotle assures us, originated with the phallic songs. p. 41



The entire experience of theatre going, for the Greeks, was phallus-centred.

A stature of Dionysius, or a phallus in his honour, was paraded to the

theatre, where it was installed in a position of prominence for the

duration of the performance. p.44



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



"Lenny Bruce is Dead" - Bob Dylan



 © 1981 Special Rider Music



Lenny Bruce is dead but his ghost lives on and on



Never did get any Golden Globe award, never made it to Synanon.



He was an outlaw, that's for sure,



More of an outlaw than you ever were.



Lenny Bruce is gone but his spirit's livin' on and on.







Maybe he had some problems, maybe some things that he couldn't work out



But he sure was funny and he sure told the truth and he knew what he was

talkin' about.



Never robbed any churches nor cut off any babies' heads,



He just took the folks in high places and he shined a light in their beds.



He's on some other shore, he didn't wanna live anymore.





Lenny Bruce is dead but he didn't commit any crime



He just had the insight to rip off the lid before its time.



I rode with him in a taxi once, only for a mile and a half,



Seemed like it took a couple of months.



Lenny Bruce moved on and like the ones that killed him, gone.





They said that he was sick 'cause he didn't play by the rules



He just showed the wise men of his day to be nothing more than fools.



They stamped him and they labeled him like they do with pants and shirts,



He fought a war on a battlefield where every victory hurts.



Lenny Bruce was bad, he was the brother that you never had.



~~~



What's funny for one person might be sickening or offensive to another, so

it's a very subjective thing.  For me personally, I'm not keen on jokes that

are very crude or use a lot of foul language.  Also I don't find jokes that

belittle people of a particular gender or minority group to be funny -

thinking how offended some people might be will stiffle any feelings of

amusement I might otherwise have.  Jokes about sex can be funny to me if

they are innuendo or subtle, and are 'neutral' in terms of people of

minorities or gender.