Jokes that misfired

[on:]

What jokes have you noticed that although they were supposed to be funny they ended up being lame or slightly disturbing? I've foung 2, both conserning Leela. The first was in Cyberhouse rules when Leela went to her reunion and met up with her old group leader

"Mr Mogul, remember me?"
"Leela! Your worthless and no one will ever love you!"
" ::laughing:: you used to say that all the time"

ouch. Thats harsh. No wonder she's so stressed out. You tell a little kid that often enough and they start to believe it.
The other one i found was in that Penguin ep, when Leela was about to shoot those penquins

"Don't leave orphans, must kill entire families"

Coming from someone else it wouldn't have been that bad, but coming from an orphan, thats just upsetting.
i know its just a show and im reading to much into it, but im taking a sociology/psychology class in high school and we just finished the chapter on Socialization and the lasting affects on people who havn't had enough, or had to much negative contact.Considering her childhood its a wonder the poor girl didn't grow up to be a serial killer.....oh wait, if she were slightly more compulsive than she would be.

[Reply #1 on:]

Serial killing Leela- I think you may have inspired a disturbing fanfic there, Venus. Hannibal Leela.

[Reply #2 on:]

lol. bring it on. morbid as i am i'd read something like that

[Reply #3 on:]

I would read it too. I love Futurama fan Fictions, but I am too uninspired to write one myself.

[Reply #4 on:]

 

Originally posted by Venus:
"Don't leave orphans, must kill entire families"

Coming from someone else it wouldn't have been that bad, but coming from an orphan, thats just upsetting.
i know its just a show and im reading to much into it, but im taking a sociology/psychology class in high school and we just finished the chapter on Socialization and the lasting affects on people who havn't had enough, or had to much negative contact.Considering her childhood its a wonder the poor girl didn't grow up to be a serial killer.....oh wait, if she were slightly more compulsive than she would be.

I think you missed the point of that line.  It wasn't even meant to be a joke (so I think it unfair to critique it in a "Jokes that misfired" thread).  She wanted to kill entire families so there wouldn't be any penguins which had their whole family killed - so then they wouldn't go on with life being sad and miserable.  So really it was the more humane thing to do - which is Leela's style when dealing with such things.


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[Reply #5 on:]

And considering she was an orphan, she may have wanted to save them from the same loneliness, depending on how u look at it. I just thought it was funny.

[Reply #6 on:]

Both of those jokes were funny. But since we're on the subject, I'd also like to suggest the joke in Cryogenic Woman about Fry's parents not looking for Fry or even sending him to school because it would be a waste of taxpayer's money. Poor bastard.

[Reply #7 on:]

Yeah poor Fry 

[Reply #8 on:]

 

Originally posted by Drippy_taco:
 
I think you missed the point of that line.  It wasn't even meant to be a joke (so I think it unfair to critique it in a "Jokes that misfired" thread).  She wanted to kill entire families so there wouldn't be any penguins which had their whole family killed - so then they wouldn't go on with life being sad and miserable.  So really it was the more humane thing to do - which is Leela's style when dealing with such things.

dude, it was a joke.  and it is funny.  think about it.  Killing whole families means killing the babies too.  and she is killing them in order to be "humane"-- its ironic!  just like that song.

and the other joke was damn funny.  you guys just don't get it

[Reply #9 on:]

 

Originally posted by VelourFog:
 dude, it was a joke.  and it is funny.  think about it.  Killing whole families means killing the babies too.  and she is killing them in order to be "humane"-- its ironic!  just like that song.

and the other joke was damn funny.  you guys just don't get it

So which is it, Velour, funny or ironic?   Did you really laugh out loud when you heard it?

[Reply #10 on:]

i got the jokes, i just didn't find them funny, i mean seriously, is the life of an orphan so miserable that death is a preferable alternative?

[Reply #11 on:]

 

Originally posted by Drippy_taco:
 So which is it, Velour, funny or ironic?   Did you really laugh out loud when you heard it?

So do i HAVE to laff out loud for it to qualify as a sucessful joke?  Because I honestly don't think I did laff out loud, but then I'm not a drunken redneck who laffs at everything    Anyway it's funny.  Things that people find too offensive are funny because people take everything too seriously. 

[Reply #12 on:]

I think 'Jokes that Misfired' is a pretty harsh way of putting it.  I mean, Leela has obviously had a pretty sucky life and it's hard not to take things like that seriously, but it is only a cartoon.  (Maybe you should study more to take your mind off it)

[Reply #13 on:]

 

Originally posted by CrazySpaceChic:
(Maybe you should study more to take your mind off it)

lol, come on im not that much of a dweeb
 
even though i didn't like that first penguin joke, they immediately redeemed themselves with the "its just like murdering a little butler." interestingly enough i find the murder of little servicemen hysterical

[Reply #14 on:]

 

Originally posted by VelourFog:
 So do i HAVE to laff out loud for it to qualify as a sucessful joke?  Because I honestly don't think I did laff out loud, but then I'm not a drunken redneck who laffs at everything    Anyway it's funny.  Things that people find too offensive are funny because people take everything too seriously. 

I liked both of those jokes, because of something that happened a few years ago- a group of people staged a protest that lasted years to try to prevent some trees being cut down, although others would be planted instead elsewhere, in order to widen a road.
Where people were being killed. Humane and sensitive my ass. VF is right, those kind of jokes are funny because they satirise issues that people take too seriously.

Also, once you start looking for potentially offensive meanings in jokes, you end up not laughing at anything. Most jokes could offend someone; but most jokes aren't intended to, so they don't. I have never been offened by an Irish joke.

[Reply #15 on:]

i was never offended, it just made me feel sorry for leela.

[Reply #16 on:]

I always feel pretty sorry for Leela. She deserves better.

[Reply #17 on:]

SPLUH!!!!

I'm saying I really don't think the latter was meant to be a JOKE, I didn't say that it was cruel, offensive or distasteful.  I just think it was meant to exhibit Leelas character and show how she was struggling to kill another living thing.  Futurama's characters don't have to be cardboard stickfigure cut-outs, they CAN have a personality, you know.  So back to my original opinion that I don't think it was meant to be a joke therefore I think it wrong to judge it in a Jokes that misfired thread.  Please don't miss my point again...   

[Reply #18 on:]

I think I'll miss your point if I dang well want to . . .

[Reply #19 on:]

you ever laff AT someone instead of with them?  I mean geeze D_T you act like you can't imagine that is what is going on with the "leela joke"  Sure it is sad, if you stop and think.  But its funny and that requires less thinking

[Reply #20 on:]

Well I guess I never narrowed that option down to something that exclusively Leela would do.  So I didn't see it like you're seeing it.  Just a difference in opinions, I guess (guh).