Anyone seen the video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzKtPezPsqE It's funny but lol..
And my favorite parody: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT8DREhlrXU&playnext=1&videos=5_RQmAZAAQE
I take it your watch =3 on a regular basis? xD
Anyone who is anyone watches =3 one a regular basis. XP
Kiddin'.
What the bugger is =3, and how is this funny?
=3 is this guy called RayWilliamsJohnson or something stupid like that. Im pretty sure they are laughing at the brother.. lol.
Isn't it great that we can laugh at other people's misfortune.
Who cares what this guy looks like or acts like. He's freaking upset that his sister was attacked and almost raped in their home. Live in their shoes for a minute and then laugh.
I'm not laughing at the situation, I feel bad for that. But society thrives on laughing at others misfortunes. And in this case, his misfortune is being a "ghetto witness" as RWJ would put it and having the camera crew film him the entire time and not cut out anything. While it is sad that it works like that, thats how it works.
@Lucifer You better watch =3 or ima hurt you. xD
That's how some people work. Maybe that's how you work... but not how good, honest people with a sense of compasion work. When someone else is in some kind of pain or suffering, I feel bad. So showing me someone, regardless of what the person looks or acts like, who is in pain doesn't make me laugh. It makes me sad and upset. Which is not fun, it's not entertainment.
So whatever. Watch and/or laugh at this kind of thing if you really want. I'm not going to stop you. It just bothers me.
I honestly think I find it more annoying than anything.
Quote from: Lingus on August 05, 2010, 02:40:32 PM
That's how some people work. Maybe that's how you work... but not how good, honest people with a sense of compasion work. When someone else is in some kind of pain or suffering, I feel bad. So showing me someone, regardless of what the person looks or acts like, who is in pain doesn't make me laugh. It makes me sad and upset. Which is not fun, it's not entertainment.
Well, there's your problem. Morality in our society today is almost non-existent.
Honestly, I find it pathetic that no one gave a crap about the entire point of that story and focused on Antoine Dodson's 'antics' instead. Seriously, a ringtone Spiderman remix of a news story about rape? What the !@#$?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hdC16-cTQ0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hdC16-cTQ0)
Quote from: Lingus
That's how some people work. Maybe that's how you work... but not how good, honest people with a sense of compasion work. When someone else is in some kind of pain or suffering, I feel bad. So showing me someone, regardless of what the person looks or acts like, who is in pain doesn't make me laugh. It makes me sad and upset. Which is not fun, it's not entertainment.
While I agree with you in this case, humor in itself is more or less acknowledging that other people are in unfortunate scenarios. Some philosopher or someone (I forget who, exactly.) once said, "Humor is rejoicing in one's superiority over others." Just think of America's Funniest Home Videos, a good, old family friendly show that people of most any level of morality can enjoy - most of those things showcase people who are either exhibiting stupid behavior or being hurt. We laugh at this because we're not in these harmful scenarios - we're sitting on our couch, showing the greatest dignity as we sip our cups of tea. Consider comedians - generally, they make fun of the absurdity of society, humanity, marriage, corporate America, airplane food, or just about anything for our entertainment. When George Carlin dwells on the stupidities of the airplane business, we can feel good about ourselves and be happy because we think, "Hey! By golly, the fact that when two planes nearly hit each other it's called a near-miss
is stupid! The guy who coined that term sure is unintelligent! Hee hee!"
You get the idea.
At a certain point, like rape, the entertainment value of such instances diminishes because we consider the lasting and emotionally-scarring effects of the situation on the individual, but to say that human suffering at
any scale is saddening rather than entertaining is a slight exaggeration. Clearly there are some discrepancies regarding when a a situation is no longer funny here, but the general concept of laughing at other people's problems is part of what makes us human, and should not be attributed necessarily to a lack of compassion or morality.
Quote from: LeGuy on August 05, 2010, 06:34:17 PM
the general concept of laughing at other people's problems is part of what makes us human, and should not be attributed necessarily to a lack of compassion or morality.
Yes, that is true. I can see how this would seem to be a 'funny' video for people to watch. However, if I try to appreciate the humor of it, Antoine Dobson comes off as much more obnoxious than funny(even if he was just trying to warn every about the attacker, which I can understand). Kinda like RWJ himself.
Quote from: Mystery on August 05, 2010, 07:08:04 PM
Quote from: LeGuy on August 05, 2010, 06:34:17 PM
the general concept of laughing at other people's problems is part of what makes us human, and should not be attributed necessarily to a lack of compassion or morality.
Yes, that is true. I can see how this would seem to be a 'funny' video for people to watch. However, if I try to appreciate the humor of it, Antoine Dobson comes off as much more obnoxious than funny(even if he was just trying to warn every about the attacker, which I can understand). Kinda like RWJ himself.
You don't like RWJ? Just curious.
Quote from: LeGuy on August 05, 2010, 06:34:17 PMJust think of America's Funniest Home Videos
Nope, sorry. Not my kind of humor. I typically enjoy witty comedic timing, intelligent humor. Slapstick nonsense is not funny to me. And especially when it's real people being hurt (like America's Funniest Video). I can stand it when it's actors and staged things, but I don't like seeing someone get kicked in the balls. That makes me cringe.
I can see what you're saying. Don't get me wrong. But you're making a blanket statement that humor is only this one thing. I disagree. Humor is multi-dimensional. It has many layers. What you are referring to, in my opinion, is a very shallow layer.
To be clear, my point was not that humor derived from someone elses pain at any level is completely unfunny. My point was that the more you rely on that and the more severe the pain or suffering becomes, the less funny it is. I'm not above laughing at slapstick comedy, but when you start involving things like rape, real cases of it no less, it's pretty much over the line.
Quote from: T-Rok on August 05, 2010, 08:10:22 PM
Quote from: Mystery on August 05, 2010, 07:08:04 PM
Quote from: LeGuy on August 05, 2010, 06:34:17 PM
the general concept of laughing at other people's problems is part of what makes us human, and should not be attributed necessarily to a lack of compassion or morality.
Yes, that is true. I can see how this would seem to be a 'funny' video for people to watch. However, if I try to appreciate the humor of it, Antoine Dobson comes off as much more obnoxious than funny(even if he was just trying to warn every about the attacker, which I can understand). Kinda like RWJ himself.
You don't like RWJ? Just curious.
No, not really. While several of of his videos I did enjoy that were funny, I just find him to be kinda over-hyped and obnoxious. I can see how he got so popular though.
EDIT: Just want to say I agree with Lingus, I find wit much funnier than slapstick routines or pain.
I wasn't necessairly saying that America's Funniest Home Videos in the pinnacle of comedic wit. I was just using it as an example of s fairly popular, innocent show that is more or less based on the suffering of others. Furthermore, I agree with you both in that well thought-out, clever wit is more amusing than the slapstick genre.
While I agree that once you encounter a true-life incident of such pain and suffering of a person, all humor gets tossed out the window (ie rape), I challenge one person to show me humor that does not involve pain on something's behalf. I can understand at a very basic and low level how this could be manipulated into hilarity, albeit I will not agree due to the reality of the situation, through humiliation (a byproduct of pain), it doesn't necessarily come off as anything other than annoying that someone would actually take the time to further degrade what is already a humiliating experience for shits and giggles.
First off, I would not be scared of that man, he's rather scrawny and kinda feminine imo. I find it a little sad that the new reporters couldn't get more appropriate footage to use and put on TV.
Secondly, yes, it would be frightening to find a random creepy man in your bed, but she wasn't actually raped or severely injured. Her brother saved her, and while it is traumatic, people have gone through worse injuries and people have still made jokes about these things.(Ex. the 7 black kids who drowned after jumping in 1 after the other even though none of them could swim). While I don't find this particular story very funny, I do think you're all looking too deeply into this. It's not that traumatic and it's not that funny.
I think the majority of people think its funny how the way he reacts, not why he is reacting like that.
but as Lingus said:
"He's freaking upset that his sister was attacked and almost raped in their home. Live in their shoes for a minute and then laugh."
His sister was fine and he saved her. I don't think the average person would react like how he did.
Also, most of the videos in America's Funniest Home Videos may not be 'funny', but if they were never joked about, it would just bring up that bad time and the person(s) in the video don't want to re-live that bad time.
So themselves, and other people joke about it and turn it into a good funny memory.
Either way, it's definitely upseting to have something like that happen. Not that I've experienced it, but it's nothing to joke about.
On the topic of RWJ, I generally find the source videos much more entertaining than his commentaries on them. His humor reminds me of the stereotypical preteens who post ridiculous comedy/rant videos on Youtube, the difference being he's old enough to know better.
Which isn't to say I have the most refined sense of humor ever seen in a teenager, but it bothers me seeing manchildren like RWJ being admired as geniuses :P I wonder what the guy's actually like in person.
Quote from: Hikarikuen on August 06, 2010, 10:39:08 PM
On the topic of RWJ, I generally find the source videos much more entertaining than his commentaries on them. His humor reminds me of the stereotypical preteens who post ridiculous comedy/rant videos on Youtube, the difference being he's old enough to know better.
Which isn't to say I have the most refined sense of humor ever seen in a teenager, but it bothers me seeing manchildren like RWJ being admired as geniuses :P I wonder what the guy's actually like in person.
Check out his blogs. :P Other than that, the only things that have ever been talked about is how his family doesn't approve of the internet and that he is short. xD