What views do you currently hold that will look outdated to your grandchildren?

[Lemon Merchant]

I'm not sure how things will look in 50 years. If we can avoid a major world war we might be in good shape. However the way that "cancel culture" is going and the way that social media is making us over into a generation of thin skinned sheep, I predict that our grandchildren will be alarmed and offended by pretty much everything we say or did in the past. We seriously need to toughen up a little bit or we are going to be a society of whiners.

But what the heck. I'm expecting a dystopian future anyway. Just read the news. The jackbooted government thugs are only a few steps from our doors.

 

[Synobun]

I'm not sure how things will look in 50 years. If we can avoid a major world war we might be in good shape. However the way that "cancel culture" is going and the way that social media is making us over into a generation of thin skinned sheep, I predict that our grandchildren will be alarmed and offended by pretty much everything we say or did in the past. We seriously need to toughen up a little bit or we are going to be a society of whiners.

How is this in any way different from previous generations? People have been getting their knickers in a twist over inconsequential things since time immemorial. Older people have full-on toddler meltdowns in public when they can't use a coupon.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

How is this in any way different from previous generations? People have been getting their knickers in a twist over inconsequential things since time immemorial. Older people have full-on toddler meltdowns in public when they can't use a coupon.

I think you're right, but I have noticed a distinct uptick in "toddler" behaviour in the press and in social media over the past few years. It seems that everyone has a hair trigger on things that years ago, no one would have cared about.

And comedians used to be funny because they were allowed to be.

 

[Socrates99]

M-kay... I guess it's different when the video games are violent. In the game I'm currently playing, the most violent thing I have to do is shoot ladybugs with cannons and blow them up with dynamite.

Not even violent. Most of them are Minecraft and Roblox videos. Some of them are ugly looking poor production value indie games.

They are pretty young. Oldest is 9. I put my foot down on some games.

I'm not sure how things will look in 50 years. If we can avoid a major world war we might be in good shape. However the way that "cancel culture" is going and the way that social media is making us over into a generation of thin skinned sheep, I predict that our grandchildren will be alarmed and offended by pretty much everything we say or did in the past. We seriously need to toughen up a little bit or we are going to be a society of whiners.

But what the heck. I'm expecting a dystopian future anyway. Just read the news. The jackbooted government thugs are only a few steps from our doors.

A lot of that is overblown or just trolling. For example just look at the recent kerfuffle with that GoP rep calling AOC a Fing *****. While some in the house called for Censure she just said "*****es get stuff done." She's supposedly in that snowflake generation right?

 

[Lemon Merchant]

A lot of that is overblown or just trolling. For example just look at the recent kerfuffle with that GoP rep calling AOC a Fing *****. While some in the house called for Censure she just said "*****es get stuff done." She's supposedly in that snowflake generation right?

I'm not trolling. Trolling is against forum rules.

I actually applaud AOC for her defense in the face of that kind of criticism. She's one of few, I would think, that could actually pull that off. I think you misinterpreted my point though. I was speaking to the fact that it is becoming prevalent in our society to publicly shame people for thoughts and deeds of no real consequence. As a hypothetical example, I could post on FB that I hate oranges. Someone from an orange juice grower's association can read that and attack me. They may also try to have me fired from my job. My employer can get alarmed about the amount of tweets and posts saying that "Lemon is prejudiced against oranges! Boycott Lemon's employer!" and they could fire me. This is obviously hyperbole, but this sort of thing happens all the time lately. People get into a snit over all sorts of inconsequential things that are not important and are often said innocently or are simply misconstrued.

The problem is that everyone is trying to "out-woke" each other and are attempting to be the most righteous. "Look at me, I'm a better person than you are. I got Lemon fired." There is a war on free speech, and we have already lost the first battle. When we have people speaking at a college campus interrupted and prevented from speaking by SJW protestors because they have heard a fraction of the message and disagree with part of it, there is something wrong. It seems these days that everyone has something to be upset about, and now, thanks to social media, everyone has a platform. It seems that everyone has a low threshold for what offends them, and it would seem to be getting lower all of the time. I know for a fact that this post is pissing some people off and I really don't care.

I despise prejudice and hate speech. The problem is that everything today is hate speech, and that just isn't so.

 

[Ajidica]

And comedians used to be funny because they were allowed to be.

Comedians aren't allowed to be funny? The only 'comedians' I can think of who have been 'cancelled' or 'not allowed to be funny' are those who either had seriously bad behavior (Louis CK), made racist 'jokes' that weren't funny (that guy who was briefly on SNL), and people who make problematic 'jokes' in general - like Kevin Hart having as part of his routine 'joking' about beating his son up if his son was gay.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I don't know how old you are, and I'm not saying this to be disrespectful, but I recall that in the past (I'm 50), comedy had a bit of an edge to it. Sure, a lot of wrong things could be (and were) said back then, but people back in the 80's and 90's (for instance) were able to laugh at themselves. That doesn't happen anymore.

I was watching an interview with John Cleese awhile ago, and he was saying that he won't perform on college campuses anymore because the people there are offended by absolutely everything, and he is just sick of having to tone down his act to the point where he literally can't say anything without fear of reprisal. He indicated that many comedians are coming around to this train of thought. And that is really a shame.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

The jackbooted government thugs are only a few steps from our doors.

Speaking of thugs... what is your view of police abusing and even killing vulnerable people during "wellness" checks? Do you think police should be involved at all - that it should be some combination of medical/social worker teams sent on these checks, without police? Or have these teams with police in case the individual has a weapon? It's becoming increasingly obvious that cops by themselves are not trained to deal with people in distress, or they simply don't give a damn.

I'm honestly curious. A cop came to do a wellness check on me, many years ago (the neighbors must have thought I was dead or something since I'd gone into one of my 'hermit modes' after my dad was sent to an out of town nursing home, and wasn't outside much). He was a bit unpleasant (condescending manner), but not violent. I do remember thinking at the time that I'd have felt less uneasy if a female officer had been with him.

Nowadays, I have as little to do with cops as possible. It seems that in some cases, ethnicity/skin color is beside the point - it's open season for people with mental illness or certain disabilities or medical conditions (ie. cops not trained to recognize if someone they think is drunk might actually be a diabetic individual in distress and needing immediate help).

 

[Ajidica]

I don't know how old you are, and I'm not saying this to be disrespectful, but I recall that in the past (I'm 50), comedy had a bit of an edge to it. Sure, a lot of wrong things could be (and were) said back then, but people back in the 80's and 90's (for instance) were able to laugh at themselves. That doesn't happen anymore.

Let's also remember comedy in the past would often be quite problematic now. I still like Are You Being Served but a frequent element in the shows jokes and one liners, occurring multiple times an episode, was casual sexual harassment.

I was watching an interview with John Cleese awhile ago, and he was saying that he won't perform on college campuses anymore because the people there are offended by absolutely everything, and he is just sick of having to tone down his act to the point where he literally can't say anything without fear of reprisal. He indicated that many comedians are coming around to this train of thought. And that is really a shame.

*shrug* Has Cleese been in anything good lately, like in the last decade? From my perspective he seems to have become a professional curmudgeon trading on some famous work he did half a century ago. I don't watch a lot of standup, so my knowledge of contemporary comedy comes mainly from SNL and various British panel shows, but I haven't gotten any indication they are 'toning down' their humor. Indeed, the last season of SNL featured jokes about coming down from a popper high, dead strippers, racial crime statistics. In the UK, I was just watching an episode of Mock the Week where a panelist made a pretty blatant joke about anal sex.

 

[Arwon]

I'm not trolling. Trolling is against forum rules.

I actually applaud AOC for her defense in the face of that kind of criticism. She's one of few, I would think, that could actually pull that off. I think you misinterpreted my point though. I was speaking to the fact that it is becoming prevalent in our society to publicly shame people for thoughts and deeds of no real consequence. As a hypothetical example, I could post on FB that I hate oranges. Someone from an orange juice grower's association can read that and attack me. They may also try to have me fired from my job. My employer can get alarmed about the amount of tweets and posts saying that "Lemon is prejudiced against oranges! Boycott Lemon's employer!" and they could fire me. This is obviously hyperbole, but this sort of thing happens all the time lately. People get into a snit over all sorts of inconsequential things that are not important and are often said innocently or are simply misconstrued.

The problem is that everyone is trying to "out-woke" each other and are attempting to be the most righteous. "Look at me, I'm a better person than you are. I got Lemon fired." There is a war on free speech, and we have already lost the first battle. When we have people speaking at a college campus interrupted and prevented from speaking by SJW protestors because they have heard a fraction of the message and disagree with part of it, there is something wrong. It seems these days that everyone has something to be upset about, and now, thanks to social media, everyone has a platform. It seems that everyone has a low threshold for what offends them, and it would seem to be getting lower all of the time. I know for a fact that this post is pissing some people off and I really don't care.

I despise prejudice and hate speech. The problem is that everything today is hate speech, and that just isn't so.

Protesters are literally being pre-emptively gassed as a matter of routine practice, and grabbed off the streets by feds in vans in US cities and you're worried about college speakers being interrupted as a threat to free speech?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I don't know how old you are, and I'm not saying this to be disrespectful, but I recall that in the past (I'm 50), comedy had a bit of an edge to it. Sure, a lot of wrong things could be (and were) said back then, but people back in the 80's and 90's (for instance) were able to laugh at themselves. That doesn't happen anymore.

What's considered funny depends on the audience, the time, and the place. I'm nostalgic for a time when I could settle in for some good political satire with the Royal Canadian Air Farce, but that's all gone now. There's only one of the original cast who's still alive, and the people who replaced the others as they died were all a couple of generations younger - and definitely not my cup of tea when it comes to humor. The last time I found a Canadian comedian funny was when Rick Mercer's show was still on. I can't help wondering what kinds of Rants he'd be doing now, with the current multiple messes going on.

Let's also remember comedy in the past would often be quite problematic now. I still like Are You Being Served but a frequent element in the shows jokes and one liners, occurring multiple times an episode, was casual sexual harassment.

I still love Are You Being Served? although some of it is really cringe-worthy in today's world. It's actually the casual racism/ethnic slurs that would be the major problem now, more than the rest of it. After all, there's the episode in which Mr Grainger dressed in blackface to perform "Mammy" at a seniors' home, then couldn't get his makeup off before applying for the position of Father Christmas. The episode ended with a young schoolboy who was delighted to see a black Father Christmas. I can guess what people would think of the "Mammy" part of the episode (not favorable at all). Not sure about the ending.

And to think that back in the day, the episode of that series that got censored was the ballroom dancing one - because Mr Humphries danced with another man (there weren't enough women to go around at their rehearsal). I didn't see the problem when I first saw this episode (it's posted on YT), and can't fathom why it would ever be a problem. But then there are a lot of people who get Very Upset if anyone steps a millimetre outside of what they consider "normal." They'd probably have a fit if they watched "Fiddler on the Roof".

 

[Kaitzilla]

I bet that the eating of meat will eventually just stop. We might be eating some lab grown meat/protein or whatever, but using the planet to grow meat will eventually stop, since it isn't really sustainable. So one day my position of: "I eat dead animal flesh at least once a day" will be seen as pretty weird, eventually maybe as weird as we view cannibals.

Yup, KFC is testing 3-D printed chicken nuggets this fall in Russia.
https://www.businessinsider.com/kfc-will-test-3d-printed-lab-grown-chicken-nuggets-this-fall-2020-7

 

[Kaitzilla]

Protesters are literally being pre-emptively gassed as a matter of routine practice, and grabbed off the streets by feds in vans in US cities and you're worried about college speakers being interrupted as a threat to free speech?

I heard protesters are now showing up with leaf blowers and blowing the gas back at the cops.
Hopefully terrorist leaf blowers don't get outlawed.

 

[Arwon]

The problem with leaf blowers is they're loud so they drown out the cops' speech

 

[Mise]

I don't know how old you are, and I'm not saying this to be disrespectful, but I recall that in the past (I'm 50), comedy had a bit of an edge to it. Sure, a lot of wrong things could be (and were) said back then, but people back in the 80's and 90's (for instance) were able to laugh at themselves. That doesn't happen anymore.

Comedy has always changed and evolved though. Comedy in the 80s and 90s was vastly different to comedy that came before it. Someone could like Monty Python, but very much dislike Stewart Lee. Someone could like Stewart Lee, but very much dislike Louis CK. Is it possible that you simply don't like modern comedy on its own merit? The jokes people tell these days aren't funny to you because your sense of humour simply differs from most modern comedians? I don't think there needs to be a nefarious cultural hegemony that is actively preventing comedy from catering to your tastes as completely or satisfactorily as it once did: comedy has always been one of the first movers in art and entertainment, and it is entirely possible that it has moved away from your personal sense of humour of its own accord. Is it possible that an 80 year old John Cleese just finds it very difficult to write jokes that appeal to the tastes of students in their late teens/early 20s, and that's why he doesn't get as many gigs at universities as he did in the 1970s?

 

[Arwon]

I think it's also possible that the only good stand up comedian is Hannah Gadsby

 

[AmazonQueen]

Comedy has always changed and evolved though. Comedy in the 80s and 90s was vastly different to comedy that came before it. Someone could like Monty Python, but very much dislike Stewart Lee. Someone could like Stewart Lee, but very much dislike Louis CK. Is it possible that you simply don't like modern comedy on its own merit? The jokes people tell these days aren't funny to you because your sense of humour simply differs from most modern comedians? I don't think there needs to be a nefarious cultural hegemony that is actively preventing comedy from catering to your tastes as completely or satisfactorily as it once did: comedy has always been one of the first movers in art and entertainment, and it is entirely possible that it has moved away from your personal sense of humour of its own accord. Is it possible that an 80 year old John Cleese just finds it very difficult to write jokes that appeal to the tastes of students in their late teens/early 20s, and that's why he doesn't get as many gigs at universities as he did in the 1970s?

Its even possible that John Cleese has changed over the years. Sometimes he just sounds like a grumpy old man nowadays.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

In the UK, I was just watching an episode of Mock the Week where a panelist made a pretty blatant joke about anal sex.

Goodness me! Anal sex?! How dangerously edgy.

 

[Gorbles]

Its even possible that John Cleese has changed over the years. Sometimes he just sounds like a grumpy old man nowadays.

Exactly. I'll never not like Monty Python, I grew up with it (I'm young; it was all VHS tapes and reruns on TV) and other similar skits. But Cleese himself has gone very "old man yells at cloud" in his old age, and isn't learning the same thing that Mise also pointed out - comedy changes. Comedy is contextual. Something funny once doesn't necessarily have to be funny forever.

People made jokes in 3000 BC that we might not find remotely funny nowadays, and they don't even have to be "edgy". They could just be based in a context that's completely inane to us now. It was a different time. Different hardships. Different jokes!

Our problem in society is almost mythologising these current, well-known comedic folk (that's actually at the root of a lot of problems, but I'm focusing on comedy for now). John Cleese isn't funny because he's John Cleese. He's not automatically funny for that fact. I'm not going to argue that his work in British humour is seminal. It will likely be referenced in some fashion for years to come. But that doesn't mean whatever he thinks is a funny joke on Twitter these days is similarly witty. Or even as good as his past work.

EDIT - removed a bit on cancel culture because I got my threads mixed up (and then the forums seemed to die for a time).

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Love how all these comments about John Cleese are not remotely addressing anything he was saying in the interview (as reported here), but just bashing him for being an old unfunny man. Is that not the old ad hominem? Kind of looks like it to me.

If he'd said "they're not booking me anymore because my comedy is too edgy" then maybe these would be meaningful retorts, but they're not meaningful retorts to "I'm choosing not to do them because they're getting offended by everything and it's insufferable".