Not all jokes malicious

Betty Goff-McCaffrey advances a very hard line against gay

    jokes in a letter today ( " Just say no ", Letters , Nov.24 )

         With Matthew Shepard's murder in the background , she suggests:

    " ..stop telling and stop listening to homosexual  and trans-sexual

    jokes. "

            How does one know before the telling that a gay joke will

    be hateful and malicious ? And in fact many GAY people are noted

    for their gay ( the usual sense ) sense of humor . They would

    be the last to suggest that a humorless world would be a safe or

    even a tolerable world for gays .

           In general political correctness has done a number on the

    humor industry. I guess you can still be GROSS !

           Just a few weeks ago Providence Journal columnist had a

    column about a really funny guy who could not perform in a

    restaurant because of complaints that his show was vulgarly

    anti- Catholic.  ( Bob Kerr had a column  ) .

            My life experience convinces me that the joker -even the

    crudest type - is less a threat to any vulnerable group than

    the seething hatred that grows madly in the dark.

             There is no need to repress the irrepressible sense of

    humor. Of sometimes it will hurt. In a democracy people should

    have thick skins, just like the politicians. We are ALWAYS

    joking about THEM . What if they passed a law ?

                ( of course, sometimes it will hurt .. )