A poorly-looking man limps into a bar with a bandage round his head. He orders a bottle of champagne and two glasses of vintage brandy.
He downs the lot and says to the barman: “I shouldn’t really be drinking this with what I’ve got?”
“Why, what have you got?”
“About £2"
Contrary to the belief of a few, the MS Society is neither lacking in humour, nor wishing to deprive people of much needed laughter. Yes, it IS the best therapy and we would only wish for there to be more of it on the forums, in our lives and in the wider world in general.
Laughter at the expense of others, whether than be an entire race or a minority is a hollow win and won’t be tolerated on this website.
You may disagree that the latter joke is funny, but it seemed a reasonable example of how to raise a laugh without offending anybody nor being such a rubbish quip that it might have fallen from a cheap cracker.
As the longest serving Moderator, and the first ‘civilian’ Mod [over 8 years and way over the hill] I think I’m qualified to tell folks how it used to be.
EXACTLY THE SAME
Our terms and conditions haven’t changed and neither have forum users feelings about what humour is. Ask any of the ‘oldies’ how often they have seen this same situation played out on the forums…
I will admit to being unsure of what was acceptable and what wasn’t in the early days…so I had my own ‘rule of thumb’. Basically if I laughed out loud when reading a joke I knew it would offend someone so it was deleted.
Unfortunately that doesn’t work anymore as I have seen every joke at least 5 times so now I don’t even read through them as I already know the punch line.
Stewart - we will never win. Forumites - you will never win. This is one of many areas where we all have to agree to disagree…but Mods and admin have no option but to stick to the T&Cs.
Hi, Stewart (admin) , looks like this site is now turning out like some scenes from the film “good morning Vietnam” , where the controller of radio points out to Robin Williams what is “funny” ?
To a person with no money but wishing to drown in a drink or someone who is depressed ( a big problem among MSer’s) it is in bad taste.
I would not normaly look at a joke like that, because it is harmless, so just how far do we go before the ‘thought police’ (not a phrase I invented) grab hold of us by the throat!
speaking for myself Hazelwah , I’ve never wished to drown in a drink , I’m just depressive !! , but with a dark sense of humour , mostly directed at myself , which is fortunate in this pc world ? , to my tiny mind there is no solution to humour though , it always seems to be at ‘someone’ or ‘somethings’ expense ?
u aint going to win! its impossible! my ex mum in law is an alcoholic-has been for 30+years and she wont last much longer…
did i laugh?! of course i did! my eyes are as wide open as my mind… the words said are just words-we all interpret them differently and then the trouble starts…unless u recognise that the world doesnt revolve around you…and everyone elses opinion is just as valid as urs.
good luck! thats directly at you! have u solved the mystery of missing name yet?!
it might be lacking those forums darren , but then I don’t know now which I’d belong to ! , it’s certainly hard (in my opinion) to talk much about anything without offending someone , pity really , cause there’s often this need in us ex chatterboxes (speaking for myself) that find ourselves confined a bit , to just talk about anything to anyone , oh well ? perhaps we should end all posts with ‘no offence intended’ ?
looks like no one can have a laugh here anymore without someone taking offense to it, we all need something to laugh at, so why don’t people just take a chill pill and laugh a bit more instead of moaning that someone wants to cheer you up, geez
I’d just like to say that my gripe wasn’t really aimed at Stewart or the M.S. society , more that the times we find ourself in, making it difficult to try and finely analyse everything we say , (especially with a diminished thought process) speaking for myself , and as almost one of the ‘oldies’ on here, I hardly dare say that of course the wise old civilian is right , we’ve seen the same scenario many a time , and to be honest I know I’m only replying and repeating what’s already been said to kill some time out of another tedious day , but of course for those looking to be picky I’ll have offended the not so wise , the not so old , and those thinking of joining the forces , and I was only agreeing ! ,
I’ll just say thanks to those that give their time and effort on here for us , and say no offence intended
I agree humor is the best form of medicine! I myself have used it through my whole diagnosis, I even have said to all that were concerned when I was first diagnosed that if anybody can rock an auto immune disease it would have to be ME! (sorry to the rest of you that are rocking out it too!) lol! while my husband and I were waiting in the waiting room of my neurologist room, my husband went to get me a magazine, he selected a few different ones and being true to his form scanned through the pile to select himself the best ones! I guess having MS doesnt allow you top dibs on the best mags? when I saw him going through the pile I noticed his face on one particular magazine, he looked like a deer in the headlights a little bit of “oh crap what do I do with this one!” I could see he was contemplating if he put it back I would ask! if he kept it I would have said “why cant I have that one!” so he just shrugged his shoulders and said well if anybody should have it you should? I took the magazing and opening title in big letters said ‘100 things to do before you die!’ I just cracked up laughing, we were still laughing while the neurologist was giving me the diagnosis of MS! when he asked why we were still giggling my husband told him about his reading material in his waiting room! probably not the best form of advertising for this type of work place! lol!
So humor is what made receiving my diagnosis not soo scary and something we still giggle about!
So keep laughing life is far too short to be taken so serioulsy!
As you can see by my username I do have a sense of humour. This is the name my 2.5 yr old niece calls me and if its good enough for her …
Not only do I have the misfortune of a name that rhymes with lots of horrible descriptions (thanks dad) - I am ginger, I wear glasses, I’m barred from lots of stuff because of my MS, I am overweight and wait for it - I’m Irish.
So I invite everyone to take your best shot!! If you can’t laugh at yourself what gives you the right to laugh at anyone else.
A new teacher was trying to make use of her psychology courses. She started her class by saying, “Everyone who thinks you’re stupid, stand up!”
After a few seconds, Little Johnny stood up.
The teacher said, “Do you think you’re stupid, Little Johnny?”
“No, miss, but I hate to see you standing there all by yourself!”
Fully agree we all need a laugh. Here is my contribution.