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I see lots of times some of you on here taking the mick...to put it politley. Why do you find this so amusing.
Its not.

Sophie.

I don't think I'm whoever you mean, but I'm happy to suggest a reason - word play. The fact that people with dyslexia have trouble with putting letters in the right order means that there is massive scope for amusing play on words.

Can I suggest to you that it isn't actually dyslexic people being joked about, it's the concept of dyslexia being used for a bit of humour? No one is pointing their fingers at some poor child who is struggling through school, going "ha ha ha, you're struggling through school, you can't spell proper, aren't you stupid!"

Sophie - obesity isn't funny, it's a rapidly growing problem causing a great deal of disease in our nation. Does that mean we can't tell "yo momma's so fat..." jokes? Men really die from being hit by things on building sites. Does that mean we can't laugh at Laurel and Hardy?

This really is a debate as old as the hills, but it comes down to this: the majority of jokes centre round someone's misfortune. It's society's coping strategy. It's nothing personal - yes, some people sadly take it too far - but life would be miserable if we couldn't laugh at things.

My folks split up last year after my Mum had a year long affair. Imagine how much comedy is based on infidelity! Believe me, I know how damaging adultery can be, and it can be a little difficult to hear jokes which use is as subject matter, but you've just got to toughen up about these things. No one means to offend me, but as they say, "if yer didn't laugh, yer'd cry."

I do see what you mean. However Im sure if someone made a joke about "Affairs" in marriage you wouldnt reply and find it funny. Some things are funny...some are not.

I just dont think its a laughing matter. Sophs.

my dad is dyslexic, he finds jokes about it funny...

I'm asthmatic and could turn blue and die at a drop of a hat - but i crack wheezer jokes and enjoy having the mick taken out of me over it...someone once said i was such an asthmatic tw*t i was allergic to rain...

i think we can all be a bit too precious over what can offend with humour..

i wouldnt go to someone with breathing difficulties in hospital and laugh in their (possibly blue) faces, but in the right context and with emotional distance - pretty much any subject can be funny...

racism - imagine if cats were racially intollerant of swans
disability - imagine being the only bat alive that could see and having to keep it quiet...
sexism - imagine a lion and a lioness constantly rowing about who takes out the carcass, and the lioness catching the lion wearing suspenders...

now, those were off the top of my head, so apologies if they werent truly amusing..but hopefully it explains what i mean...

you're a very emotionally driven lady sophie...but please remember the root of lots of jokes and comedy is quite cruel in itself...

billy conolly and richard pryor tell some geuinely very sad stories - but they are also outrageously funny too...

richard pryor was born in brothel and his mum was a prostitute...yet some of his sets were about that very subject...

tom and jerry cartoons are extremely violent...

the three stooges regularly put pick axes in each others heads...

i understand where you're coming from, but really, i read the post you are alluding too - and it was just wordplay...

I think if a joke strikes a personal chord with you, it won't be as funny to you (if at all) as it will be to others. As we all know humour is extremely subjective and, in some cases, very controversial indeed. Racist jokes, for example. Some people just cannot accept these jokes as being funny or morally acceptable in any way, shape or form.

But if I'm being honest, I will laugh at just about anything if I find it amusing. Someone at work is always texting jokes around and more often than not, some people would consider these jokes to be in the poorest of tastes. As far as this guy is concerned, nothing is sacred and anything goes. I received a joke about the Chinese earthquake just yesterday. I won't repeat it here for obvious reason, but suffice to say that I found it very funny. And I'm Chinese. So what does that make me? A racist against my own people or just an idiot who laughs at the suffering of others? Or something else?

I am quite emotional...but then im a girl so what do you expect. As for jokes about the earthquake.
Well thats not very funny is it.
I laugh when someone falls over, but if they are really hurt, I dont laugh, I help them. I dont like to see anyone hurt.

Sophie wrote:...I laugh when someone falls over, but if they are really hurt, I dont laugh, I help them. I dont like to see anyone hurt.

But your initial, spur-of-the-moment, gut reaction, was still to laugh. Why? Because an incident like seeing someone slip and fall over is inherently funny and most people will laugh. It's human nature. You may offer to help when you realise they're hurt, but you still laughed.

Sophie wrote:I am quite emotional...but then im a girl so what do you expect.

Sexist.

sophie wrote: As for jokes about the earthquake.
Well thats not very funny is it.

Racist.

Replicant wrote:But your initial, spur-of-the-moment, gut reaction, was still to laugh. Why? Because an incident like seeing someone slip and fall over is inherently funny and most people will laugh. It's human nature. You may offer to help when you realise they're hurt, but you still laughed.

Replicant's bang on the money there.

Freud was wrong about a lot of things but he saw laughing at forbidden jokes as an important subconscious release of tension that could otherwise lead to neurosis, and there's evidence all day every day that he was right about it being a subconscious response. You hear a tale told in a certain way and the comedic reaction hits you before you can get a conscious grip on yourself to suppress it. Your subconscious isn't necessarily a grown up, but it's always way ahead of you, and also has an immensely powerful grip on you.

Love him or loathe him, Jimmy Carr is the master at exploiting this reaction. I can't stand the man, but I'm fascinated by his ability to make people laugh then cover their mouths when they realise what they've just laughed at. Genius.

The word I think we are looking for is; Schadenfreude, which is the enjoyment of someone elses misfortune!
It kinda explains the whole dyslexia jokes thing.
Not that its right!
Unless your dyslexic of course!

The Fonz is dyslexic...I just thought he was autistic?!

GaryGrace wrote:The Fonz is dyslexic...I just thought he was autistic?!

Nah, he used to play keyboards with Autechre...

sophie, guilty as charges I'm the one who says "did you hear about the dyslexic pimp who whent to america and bought a warehouse" and "there was this dyslexic guy that whent to a rave and scored an f "

I say things like this because as a person with dyspraxia / dyslexia and aspurges but also high social skills (nero-typical) most people are unaware that I'm disabled, they think I limp because either I'm wel'ard or well hung.
I find thease types of jokes help people understand that people can have seriose problems but still apear normal and it helps them ease into the idea.

I use humour in my act much like darrel does in his fooler dooler tapes, to break the ice and it helps me bluff my way in social situations which I find hard to do because of my condition, hope this clears it up for you.

geneticly we are conditioned to find accidents and mistakes humourous because it is not us thats made the mistake and we can learn from it, back in the cave man days if you made a mistake, you got eaten so you'd better learn from other peoples mistakes or die.

I'm dyslexic. I spent many a few years with a speech pathologist during my time in elementary school. They didn't know much about it at the time. I was considered severly dyslexic but I got through it and I still find myself getting things reversed. Not so much as upside down and backwards anymore but sometimes I do have to think about which way an 's' or 'z' goes. or which way an 'L' points. and numbers still cause me great fustration especially when I'm tired.

But you know what? I still laugh. Its a way of saying its not so bad there is a lot worse out there. I have a friend who is dyslexic as well and wants to start a club, 'Dyslexics Untied' (rather then united, in case you didn't get it). There are always going to be incidents that are not funny, If I was working hard at something and made a really dumb mistake, my wife would never point it out and laugh no matter how funny it is because she knows how hard or how long I've been working on the document in question. She would point it out and correct it, but not laugh. However a week or so later all bets are off and we usually we will laugh our behinds off.

I love those blooper shows. America's funniest home videos is hysterical. usually because I believe people mostly deserve to be humiliated on TV when they have done something incredibly stupid. I believe it was Mel Brooks who said something to the effect of 'funny is what happens to other people'
Humour is situational and there is always a time and place.

I am dyslektic