🚀 go-pugleaf

> 	The question: Are ALL jokes offensive in SOME way to SOMEone?
> Can anyone supply a joke that is completely inoffensive to anybody
> (yet still funny to someone)? 

It is Heinlein's hypothesis (outlined in "Stranger in a Strange Land")
that we laugh at things as a defense mechanism, that is we laugh because
othersize we would cry.  I recommend this book highly for it's treatment
of the meaning of humor.

It seems to be that humor falls into two broad categories.  Wordplay,
such as puns, and humor where somebody is getting hurt in some way or
another.

> 	Of course, there are plenty of people willing and able to poke
> fun at themselves and their own foibles. Is it a necessary trait that
> people be offended by subjects that affect them? 

No.  For example, Jesse Jackson on SNL (as already pointed out).

> [...] I suspect that the offense one takes is
> related to the severity of the negative attributes of belonging to the
> group in question.

Good point.

> [...] where on the scale (not offended ... outraged) SHOULD feminists be?

Oh, about as offended as any other group systematically downtrodden.
Say, "Black people", "Jews", or "recent Polish immigrants".  Now, how
ofended "should" these people be?  Aydunno.  I suspect that rabid
outrage is counterproductive, if that means anything.

> 	I really would like to hear some non-offensive jokes, if anybody
> can think of any. Please post them, let's see if anybody is offended.

I note that some have already posted some non-offensive examples.  I
further note that all of these that I noticed have been word-play...
-- 
Wayne Throop at Data General, RTP, NC
<the-known-world>!mcnc!rti-sel!dg_rtp!throopw