Wednesday, March 03, 2021

Testing the level of LGBTQ offense - what should we be offended by and what should we 'get over?'

 

 
There's so much talk about people supposedly getting offended too much and "cancel culture" (which I think is a myth) that I wanted to do some type of experiment about what people feel is offensive or not.

 The above clip is from the mid 1980s when now legendary comedian Eddie Murphy was just becoming famous. This portion of his stand-up act is talking about gays and AIDS. I should give you a warning if you haven't seen this before - the clip is very not safe for work. Murphy has long since apologized for comments like these he expressed here. 

My question is do you think it's offensive now. And if not, do you at least see a reason for other people to get offended over it. Or do you think folks who may find it hurtful should "get over it?"

2 comments:

Chitown Kev said...

I remember this entire routine...it was offensive then and is offensive now because of the "f-word...I will say that looking at this almost 30 years later, the Ralph Kramden joke had some potential if he hadn't gave such a graphic demonstration

Frank said...

I found nothing funny in the routine. I felt that he was desperately trying too hard to be offensive and he succeeded at that, but not at being a comic. I think that beyond offensive it was crude, juvenile, bigoted, and embarrassing. Growing up Italian-American Catholic, I never heard sex-talk and I remember my mother and aunts even using euphemisms for the word "pregnant". I'm 72 and I'm still not comfortable with sex-talk. I can't think of a comedian who would do such a routine now and be applauded. I'm almost sorry I watched the video because I like Eddie Murphy but lost some respect for him even though that episode was in his past.