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the inability to laugh is part of the modern problem.

During WW2 it was seen as vital to have shows like ITMA. Today people are prosecuted if they tell jokes about 'the enemy'.

the soldiers humour about the taliban up on ytube would never be aired nationally these days. Which is probably why people prefer the upload sites to the pumping of pc correctness on national broadcasters? Which is why TV is dying. Its not honest with its public but is pushing some elaborate fictions of a clique.

This posting will probably be moderated and rejected, thus proving it is no laughing matter to mock or tell jokes about 'the enemy'.
We are governed by a whole cabel of disfunctional characters, who not only look distinctly odd, but have strange facial and body gestures, comical voices and definitely unusual mental capabilities.
With a daily show like this, who needs comedy?

A paraplegic walks into a bar...

It all depends on the audience, you can get laughter, confusion (whats a paraplegic ) and shock/disgust. The above one-liner won't be an opener for most comedians but could be used and delivered with great effect even to an audience of medal winning special Olympians. Cruel and shocking jokes/monos are always gonna get a big reaction, you may not agree with what they say/ write or perform, but you'll invariably be drawn in. The envelope has already been ripped wide open on TV; watch Family Guy or Mock The Week with Frankie Boyle for example. Main stream Americans can still react badly to shock and bare breasts, (they loved 'shock and awe' though) and they certainly never got Bill Hicks because in most part his material was too thought provoking; Americans don't want to think too much. Ben Stiller can knock-out spoof comedies all day long, get the mass audience watching and make lots of $$$, even with a shocking and cruel script... long as its kept simple... and lets face it, Americans are.....simple.

What is funny to one person can shoot miles above the head of another, or may just not be to their own individual taste.

When labelling comedy as 'offensive' (or, worse, banning or censoring jokes) it's worth bearing the above point in mind. How many people have to be offended before a joke becomes officially 'offensive'? I'm tall. If I decree that I am offended by jokes about tall people, should they be banned to avoid offending me? Or should I simply vote with my feet - there is surely an element of supply and demand here. Ben Stiller's movie will sink or swim depending upon whether people are accepting of the humour.

The crux of it all, in my opinion, is intent. Did the writer intend to offend, or was it their intention to produce a piece that was funny? A discussion about Ricky Gervais's frequently-employed wheelchair jokes goes beyond the scope of my argument here, but there is a long separate debate to be had about whether he is making a clever observation about crass prejudices or merely finding an underhand way to laugh along too, yet disguise it as criticism.

If you can't take it, you shouldn't dish it out. As a comedy writer, I'm happy to play on International stereotypes. (The hackneyed beach towel on the sunbed jokes, the Scandinavians who love spontaneous nudity, etc.) But I'm equally content to sit and laugh at a stand up who does exactly the same back at the English - our stiff reserve, our bad teeth, etc. They're all sterotypes, but we all know people who conform to them and it's fun to examine our differences.

In summary, you'll always offend somebody, whatever you do. Writers should be true to themselves, and if their intentions aren't cruel, there will be enough willing consumers to propagate the market and silence the bleating few.

Any organisation, institution, or grouping that doesn't feel able to be laughed at is suffering from a serious dose of insecurity.

Disabled people have the same right to be laughed at as anyone else.

Amen to comment #5.

'Disabled people have the same right to be laughed at as anyone else.'

The space in which the Stiller film creates discomfort is located in the audiences' laughter. Do we / 'they' laugh at the white man blacking up, or do we laugh at characters' ignorance. Perhaps this comes down to a question of what faith do we have in others to be good-humoured about and open to human difference.

JUST ANOTHER INDICATOR

I posted recently to the effect that man can only cope, in a sustainable fashion, in small communities with limited weaponry and constrained drug use. (What we like to call primitive!)
The utter confusion of the modern over-complex world, arises from incapacity in all of us. We are ALL disabled when faced with wall to wall, all-day alcohol, gambling, debt and must-have stuff. Our general disability becomes acute when we try to remove the manifestations of INNATE PREJUDICE AND AVERSIONS from daily life, of which humour looms large. In short, modern man (believing himself civilised and capable) is a mess, caught up in a further mess of his own making and with no clue what to do next.
Now THAT is funny.

MY GOD[SORRY LATER WORD MIGHT BE OFFENSIVE IN UK NOWADAYS] WHY HAVE WE LOST THE ABILITY TO LAUGH AT OURSELVES,AS A SCOT I HEAR JOKES ABOUT US ALL THE TIME,DO I GET BOTHERED,NO,PEOPLE HAVE BECOME TOO SERIOUS FOR MY LIKING,LIGHTEN UP AND LAUGH, SOMETIMES IT MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD,TRUST ME IT DOES.

Oh heck, anything I try and write doesn't take with this majestic new system.

See if this works:

I have seen this film and it is at times uncomfortably hilarious.

The discomfort comes from tackling head-on the issues entirely generated by Hollywood and associated media - the way they represent non-white characters and people with disabilities. The film makes fun of Hollywood and not of them which is why it works.

Go and see it regardless of what Newsnight Reviewers say....Robert Downey Jr is awesome!

Sorry, but I think someone at Newsnight is missing the point about the Robert Downey Jr movie. It actually satirises 'blacking up'.

He is playing a white method actor who blacks up for a part in a war movie.

If Newsnight is going to debate this very interesting area, the facts should be set out clearly.

I was watching some Benny Hill shows last night. Definitely not PC but most definitely funny. It is a shame the PC crowd have ruined comedy by trying not to offend anyone.

Comedy now seems to concentrate on vulgar speech, not humorous content. So, I am offended by viulgar language, but that is OK as I don't fit into any stereotypical PC group as an English White Male.