A 2016 Netflix documentary about taboos in comedy.
Can jokes about the Holocaust ever be funny? Ever NOT be in terrible taste? Can ONLY be told by Jews?
Can jokes about 9/11 ever be funny?
Lots of comedians interviewed, from Mel Brooks to Gilbert Gottfried to Rob & Carl Reiner to Sarah Silverman. Archival footage of Joan Rivers and Lenny Bruce and Charlie Chaplin and even clips from Jerry Lewis's unreleased "The Day The Clown Cried." Footage of Sacha Baron Cohen parodying anti-Semitic songs in front of a cowboy audience -- who then laugh and sing along in agreement. Lots of critics and writers and Standards people, saying how comedy that doesn't attack taboo subjects, that isn't daring, that doesn't push the envelope won't be fresh. Lots of clips of routines that broke open new areas of discussion, that impinged on good taste to open dialog about things that polite people didn't talk about: homosexuality. Drugs. Religion.
9/11.
The Holocaust.
Thought provoking movie. Humor is a way of dealing with difficult subjects, humor can get people through impossible circumstances. Humor can be a way to talk about things we don't talk about. Taboos are made to be broken.
Censorship, because something is "too sensitive" or "in poor taste," doesn't disarm sensitive subjects, it makes them MORE sensitive.
Yet... at the same time, a percentage of people don't get the joke. To them, tasteless humor gives them permission to be vile.
Hmmm.... Much to think about.