Überaktive wrote:
I really don't care that much, and personally I thinka that almost anything can be laughed at. But hmour is difficult and highly personal. I joke about incontinence myself with the few people who know about my issues, but usually incontinence jokes are not very funny. They are constructed all wrong. Rather than trying to find the absurdities of incontinence or the perceptions of the condition or the oddities sensitive and embarrassed "product marketing", they focus on the "peepee-caca-poopoo"-side of things. That is old and unimaginative and the easiest route to take.
I give an example: there is this sketch show in my home country that once featured a speed-dating sketch: a businessman sits at a cocktail lounge and his date comes in. The woman looks at the man ad says "your pants are... puffy" and the guy goes: "Yeah, I wear diapers 'cos they make mah busy life soooo much easier." And then he starts to exxplain to the shocked lady that "all great men and women in history have worn diapers to save time and be more effective" and then they march historical characters on the stage presumably wearing diapers.
That joke is not offensive. It is not a joke at all. It's just goddamn stupid and embarrassingly cringy writing. Even more cringy was hearing the audience howling with laughter. And that piece of excrement of a sketch went on for *SIX FULL MINUTES*. And why link diapers with "busy life". Try something new.
And the butt -"haha"- of the joke was that the guy's pants were puffy because he had a diaper on and he was busy and "went to the toilet" while talking to his date. Jeez. Disgusting.
What if they built the joke around the fact that both of them are wearing and worried that the other will notice. Then they try to hide it the best they can but at some point the truth surfaces. Give me something, professional writers! You could really try to say something while being funny at the same time: for example you could use your show that has a million viewers every saturday to dissect a taboo. To show that yes, perfectly "normal" people who have jobs and go on dates may be wearing diapers due to a myriad of reasons - and you could still build humour around that.
Come up with something better than just filling an actor's pants with cottonwool and having him go "I am a successful businessman and when I'm on the go and I gotta go I go." AARRGGHH.
Wow! Great post, and a great idea about writing a sketch where both are wearing and worrying! I am fortunate to be married to a supportive wife, so I don't need to worry about entering the dating pool, but even she (jokingly) made a comment along the lines of, "well, I guess you can't leave me now..."