The "its raining men" comment that caused the most uproar wasn't funny or black humour or making fun of the reaction, it was making fun of people who clambered out of windows because they'd rather fall to their deaths than burn to death, considering the thread was full of people expressing their disgust and upset, anyone who posts that kind of stuff in there is laying themselves open to criticism. I don't disagree with what you said, I think that maybe the "comments" weren't a terribly high standard of humour and were put into the context of a thread were they were clearly not wanted. Comparing this to the Brass Eye hysteria is nonsense, that was illl informed comments about a programme they didnt understand that parodied THEM, although they didnt realise it. This is cheap shots at people who died a day ago, its different. I dnno if im making sense, im gonna go and havea cup of tea

I didn't see that comment. I agree that is sick and would probably best not have been posted. I don't defend that sort of mocking of the victims. It's really a question of what point is being made.

>The "its raining men" comment that caused the most uproar wasn't funny or black humour or making fun of the reaction, it was making fun of people who clambered out of windows because they'd rather fall to their deaths than burn to death, considering the thread was full of people expressing their disgust and upset, anyone who posts that kind of stuff in there is laying themselves open to criticism. I don't disagree with what you said, I think that maybe the "comments" weren't a terribly high standard of humour and were put into the context of a thread were they were clearly not wanted. Comparing this to the Brass Eye hysteria is nonsense, that was illl informed comments about a programme they didnt understand that parodied THEM, although they didnt realise it. This is cheap shots at people who died a day ago, its different. I dnno if im making sense, im gonna go and havea cup of tea

>The "its raining men" comment that caused the most uproar wasn't funny or black humour >or making fun of the reaction,


On the other hand, the fact that Geri is secretly going to know that some people are thinking of the WTC tragedy when she performs that record, but isn't going to be able to acknowledge it publically because the connection isn't immediately obvious so by withdrawing the record and mentioning the connection, she's going to shock and outrage more people ...

Is that funny?
Or just upsetting, like the way that all 80s films featuring the NY skyline are going to feel a bit tainted for a while?

I don't know.

I find the prospect of that witless tart bawling her little song while the audience stands still in horror quite funny, worringly. But still, thats mocking Geri, not victims. Any huge event like this has huge repercussions, many of which are bound to be a source of humour, but at this early stage, when you don't know who will be reading your comments or what effect they will have, i think its best to stay the right side of controversy.

i officially apologise about the 'it's raining men' comment, i'm my generation's Iain Lee.

i still stand by my post on another forum that millions of people die, thousands murdered, everyday. just because many people die at once doesn't make it any more or less upsetting. thats not to say i'm unfeeling, i just hate it when private grief becomes public.

at least this forum is uncensored and still has a sense of perspective. the Danny Baker forum has had bad taste posts removed, and they have just imposed two days of no posting, which seems a bit excessive to me.

People tell jokes to distance themselves from these sort of things. I can hardly believe anyone fails to feel nausiated when they actually see footage. Shock humour is (usually) lazy comedy - but you can hardly blame people for not being funny if that's their way of coping.

Apart from Iain Lee who gets paid for it.

As for jokes which are funny, there is actually a lot to be amused by from a satirical point of view - there have been so many ridiculous statements made by so many people of importance.

If the WTC had been distroyed and nobody killed - I imagine people would find the whole thing very funny - being as it it not particularly a symbol of freedom at all. And Geoge Bush confirming many fears. It's just the deaths which disgust - as I guess the first post puts much better.

Whatever, I'm imagining the next issue of Private Eye should be fascinating reading.

(interesting though that michaelmoore.com is much more interesting when he's not trying to be funny.....)

appologies for overusing the word 'interesting' and the penultimate paragraph not reading at all clearly.
NEED SLEEP. Goodnight.

I don't think this is private grief.
It's worldwide grief for a terrible thing. I feel maybe some of you have failed to grasp how bad it is. So coming up with appropriate records is actually inappropriate and offensive.
In a way this kind of humour should be private if anything. We've all been forced to laugh in different ways, but only to keep ourselves going.
And if you're so upset about the individual acts of terrorism you should still be upset about this massive one. It doesn't make sense to say that cos all these people have died at once doesn't make it special. If you've been hurt by one person dying in a bomb then you should be hurt proportionally by 20,000 people dying. Stop trying to be clever and see the whole picture and realise that there is very little amusing about this situation for the people who died or for all the people who are going to die (in whatever multiples) because of what's going on.

"I hope the Onion writers survived and are having a field day, especially now they're based in New York."

Months ago I was looking in the Onion archive and saw an old story about an Arab terrorist stuck at a US airport, waiting to get a plane so he could hijack it and crash it somewhere. The joke was he was thwarted because it kept getting rescheduled.

I bet they delete that permanently, but it did actually exist.