Offensive Comedy?

I, being a woman of color, really enjoy offensive humor, but I know that the Episode Community as a whole is all inclusive and pc. That’s fine, that’s great that we’re becoming more progressive as a society, but I really want to write a story with Office-esque edgy humor, but I’m afraid of all the backlash I’ll get. What do you guys think?

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I like offensive and edgy memes as well but honestly, there’s a line you can’t cross. If it’s something you’ve gone through, sure, go ahead. But if it’s something you have never faced -or someone you know at least- I say don’t do it.

A lot of people are going to say “Yes, go ahead and create that story!” but people who say they like dark humor always get mad when you make a joke about them. So if you really are going to make it offensive, might as well make it offensive for all ksafjaksl

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Do whatever you want to, but maybe add a disclaimer?

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Just to clarify (I wrote this when it was late and I was tired): I don’t want to make an Episode with hardcore offensive jokes. Maybe a little playful jokes (I’d know what too far is) that don’t really deride the group of people it’s about rather than the foolishness of the person making that joke. But I don’t expect people to pick up on subtlety like that (not an insult or anything, it’s always a first reaction to be offended, even one I would have).

I don’t think that has anything to do with it. Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire is headquartered in the Valley. Stephen Miller grew up in Santa Monica…but I disgress.

Episode makes the rules they do in order to cover their asses in the event something gets out of hand. If someone is making a story that crosses the line, they can take care of it.

Furthermore, the app leans towards a younger demographic that might not be suited for this kind of humor, specifically, they might not understand it or read between the lines.

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Same here, I love dark humor!!!and tend to gravitate towards stories that include offensive humor on the app so I’d love to read a story like that. But you will probably get some backlash…almost every story on this platform does in some way. I mean I wouldn’t mind but I;d say proceed with caution.

But if this is all it is, I don’t see why anyone would be opposed to that

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If you want to do it, I say go for it. One thing about The Office is that the show knew where to draw the line. So long as you do that, I don’t think it should be a huge issue. And if it’s subtle, playful jokes, I dount it’ll be too much of an issue.

But of course, no matter how carefully you’ll tread, you can’t please everyone and someone can probably still end up being offended. You can’t please everyone, you know?

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Ben Shapiro is an outlier. California is a blue echo chamber. Not a lot of people are open about their “wrong-think” throughout the country, and even more so this is true in California. There will always be outliers; that doesn’t discount the mob.

And the mob most often and is more likely to not like offensive comedy X’DDD

Big truth ^

I grew up in California, and I know what it’s like.

Yeah…the coast is pretty blue, but there are definitely pretty conservative pockets (Central California, San Diego and Orange County).

I grew up in a conservative district in SoCal which just turned blue in November. It’s a very liberal state, but the media kinda oversimplifies it’s complexities. It’s easier to paint California is this hippy boogeymen than it is to take closer at its complex conservative history.

Though my point kind of is, that Episode’s location doesn’t have much bearing on its policies. Episode being in California has more to do with it’s ability to attract talent in Silicon Valley and participate in the industry, than it has anything to politics.

Their rules have nothing to do with being in California. They make the rules they do to avoid controversy. If you broadly tell your users to avoid blatant political content, you have all your bases covered, so nobody gets offended, left-wing or right-wing.

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I can see this, no problem. That makes perfect sense, just that California can attract this kind of thing, but they’re surrounded by blue ideas. Impossible to avoid to the point that it isn’t always the most recognizable when blue slaps you in the face, X’D

I think Episode is good at avoiding “blatant political content”, but when one side owns the culture, right-wing people do get frustrated. I wouldn’t say offended, but frustrated, most definitely. Media, especially media you’ll find made that is engulfed with blue ideologies, just gets tired.

However, if you make something that doesn’t reflect the dominant culture, like South Park is made in Colorado, and they’re Republican, lol, it bothers a lot of people. They aren’t always “blatantly political”, but you can see the leanings in the art. There’s a lot of things we see in South Park that when we watch it, the first thought is “Man…that would get soo much backlash now…” Because blues own the culture. Blues probably notice it less, but all my right-wing friends (especially those in Cali) just get tired of this nonsense after a while and turn their stuff off. X"D

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Fair enough.

What specifically do you by “blue ideas?” Has episode actively endorsed any left-leaning political ideologies? Until then, I would take what they and do say at face-value.

On other side of the coin, much of conservative media is headquartered in liberal cities. They’ve been able to maintain their mission statement without the local political scene influencing them. I imagine episode isn’t significantly different.

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LOL! Most cities are liberal. X’DD Even Dallas in Texas, surrounded by red, but Dallas itself, the single blue area X’DD Really funny looking actually ^^’

I definitely would not say “actively endorsed”, more like…put 'em down real subtly.

I really try to avoid Episode stories since the first left idea I saw came up in Mean Girls. They’re talking about feminism and mentioned the mythical wage gap. It made me roll my eyes, so now I barely read actually read Episode stories. I’ll read one still every now and then, but I prefer community stories because they don’t usually mention real political talking points.

None of them are like The Fosters, which is nice. It isn’t so bad I can’t ignore the stuff, but I can definitely see the blue culture influencing their stories (when the stories aren’t boring and forgettable X’DDDD)

Ironically, one of my favorite Episode stories is “Silent Voice” which has quite a few left-leaning ideas in it, like the idea “more than 2 genders”. You kinda get used to ignoring the cringier parts of your culture when you aren’t on that side of the aisle, X’DDD

I saw Dragon Age 4’s director say that “It is easier to ignore political art when the ideas are the same as yours.” That, I feel, is extremely true. X’D

I didn’t really watch a whole lot of Episode originals so I can’t speak on that.

Perhaps I’m a bit biased, coming from the left so I don’t see it as a massive deal, though I can understand what you mean.

Fair enough. Feminism isn’t a monolithic movement, and there are various sects of it. Though when stories usually talk about feminism, they’re mostly focused on the third-wave.

As for the wage gap, that’s whole other conversation that would steer off topic. There was a study done in 2009 by three economists who wanted to understand the wage gap, by following MBA graduated from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. They looked at thousands of men and women who graduated between 1990 and 2006, data showed that men had slightly higher salaries their first year out of graduate school. The gap widened the longer they were out of school.. The topic is oversimplified, and nuance makes a great discussion, but an overly complex storyline.

I’ll be honest. I never understood why this topic is always brought up and why it’s divided along party lines. I know it was discussed here before, but I think it bears repeating. Science has long been on the side that that gender exists on a spectrum and it isn’t binary. It’s not about ignoring the cringe parts of culture, but understanding the world beyond a high school biology class.

And maybe it is easier to ignore political art when you share the ideas, though I think it’s more important to explore these ideas beyond oversimplified talks points. I definitely share some of these views, but I absolutely notice them when I see them. I believe the way it’s presented definitely makes a difference in how it’s received.

I might have gotten carried away, but I didn’t mean to highjack this thread. :no_mouth:

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Yeah I know, we both did, X’DDDD

I disagree with a lot of this, but it is off-topic, so >.> I suppose we should just let it go X"D

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All good!

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I grew up in SoCal, too. Not in the city, though, and it’s a lot less pc in the suburbs than it is in the city. I know that for a fact and since the Office takes place in a small town, it makes sense why they would have such crass humor. Regardless, I’ll probably need someone to proof read the story once I’m done.

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I think a big part of the success of The Office is that the narrative never really positions itself as holding approval for any offensive statement(s) made by x character. I’d argue even that the jokes are actually making fun of the characters who are being offensive and framing all their assumptions/prejudices as foolish.

I’m struggling for good examples (The Office was never my thing), but think about how the characters who say offensive things are framed. Michael is completely foolish, an incompetent boss, and any humor is derived from him miserably failing to be a good and professional authority figure like he wants to be. Dwight might be a decent salesman but he’s completely over-the-top and we’re not encouraged to see offensive statements he makes about women as being reasonable. Jim, on the other hand, is the straight man character and one of the few we’re consistently meant to like and agree with. The Jim Halpert reaction face lives on for a reason.

Figuring out who is being framed by the narrative as the most reasonable is the critical difference between satire and comedy that is just mocking the vulnerable. That’s my take.

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Yes, I believe you explain the logic of this humor quite well. It’s to poke fun at things that are considered offensive. However, lot’s of people fail to see this and most of the time see it as promoting offensive assumptions. Especially in this community where they value proactivism immensely.

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As for my opinion, I’d say go for it. People will always have critism to make, just know when it’s considered a joke and when it’s just flat out offensive. I would definitely read and would want to see a comedy that has more than light hearted humor.

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Yeah, I always thought that was how the comedy was framed as well. The comedy is more of a means to the story, in my opinion. In this story, the comedy wouldn’t be the main focus, but some of the comedy would be Office-esque offensive.

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