Dead babies make me laugh…

…is not the statement of someone who actually finds dead babies funny. After all, where’s the humor in that? It is instead the statement of someone who finds the shocked reactions of others funny. And therein lies the humor. Or not. ‘Dead babies make me laugh’ was a Facebook group that caused massive outrage on [...]

November 17, 2008

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Baby…is not the statement of someone who actually finds dead babies funny. After all, where’s the humor in that? It is instead the statement of someone who finds the shocked reactions of others funny. And therein lies the humor.

Or not.

‘Dead babies make me laugh’ was a Facebook group that caused massive outrage on the popular social networking site and was eventually banned by Facebook under protests by thousands of users. These thousands of moralizing busybodies weren’t content to simply ignore that which they found offensive or distasteful: they wanted to ban it, so that nobody could enjoy it.

Now, I realize I’ve lost some of you already. Who could actually enjoy such a patently offensive thing?

The answer is that it isn’t dead babies they’re enjoying. It is the ‘outrage’, the reaction, the shock and anger of others. And I have to confess, I find that highly entertaining too. The British tabloid The Sun published an article that reads:

Internet sickos who mocked DEAD BABIES [sic] were banned last night after protests from grieving mums. The vile forum on networking website Facebook was called Dead Babies Make Me Laugh. It had hundreds of members and listed dozens of twisted

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11 Comments

  1. S Quinney on November 18, 2008 | Permalink

    Hi John glad to see comments are back. So you’re completely right on this. And anyway is there anything new about it? Dead baby humor has been around for a long time, it’s a form of comedy where the humor is expressly about shocking people and its an art form. If you or your readers want to see a list of dead baby jokes, see this;
    http://www.skrause.org/humor/deadbaby.shtml

    People who don’t like those jokes have no grounds to claim that those who DO like those jokes are evil, sick, dishonorable, immoral or anything else. they’re simply a form of humor which like you say has nothing to do with whether or not you care for babies, like babies, have babies, have had a miscarriage, have had a baby die, anything – it has to do with your appreciation for a kind of dark comedy where the joke is on the offended party.

  2. Schlect on November 18, 2008 | Permalink

    My favourite is

    Why did the baby cross the road?
    It was stapled to the chicken.

  3. John on November 18, 2008 | Permalink

    Thanks guys. Also, if you live in the UK you may be familiar with the Baby P case that’s been in the news lately – someone brought this to my attention after I wrote this piece. It changes nothing about what I wrote, and merely gives further ammunition to those who’d like to pretend that ‘Dead babies make me laugh’ is a real statement about real babies like Baby P. See this Spiked article on the subject:

    http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5937/

  4. Roby LaPorte on November 19, 2008 | Permalink

    Hmmm, very odd, indeed. This is another fine example of people forcing their points of view (paranoias) on others. Kinda like the ‘yes on 8′ people, saying that schools would teach homosexuality in classrooms if gays had the right to marry their partner. They would have kids take field trips to gay weddings. Right. In all af my schooling, or my children

  5. John on November 19, 2008 | Permalink

    You’re right. And The Aristocrats, that old Hollywood joke revered by so many great comedians, is simply a version of a dead baby joke: it’s a joke whose purpose is to see how far the limits of free speech are. It may be despicable stuff, but that’s the point! After all, as Noam Chomsky said, “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.”

  6. Roby LaPorte on November 20, 2008 | Permalink

    Yup, well said. This also reminds me of the Beatle Album, Yesterday and Today’. The original album cover was the boys dressed in butchers smocks,(long white coats) with various meats hanging on them along with a couple of dismembered baby dolls. This was released in the UK and a few actually got across the pond. The US decided this was outrageous and pulled the censor card! They made them glue a different cover over the top of these first few record jackets. The new images was rather drab, just standing around an old travel trunk with George sitting in it. Oh yeah, pretty out there for it’s time, the world was REALLY not ready for dead babies at that time. I was lucky enough to find one of those records and steam off the top picture and there they were, all meat and dead babies with these shit eating grins!!! Pretty funny, and I still have the record… somewhere. Those boys were way ahead of their time.

  7. Una on November 24, 2008 | Permalink

    mate, the people who came up with that site need to get a grip. if you’re that miserable in life and have to push the boundaries that far for entertainment sake then a reality check is needed!

  8. John on November 24, 2008 | Permalink

    Una- That’s your opinion, and I’m sure you’re protective enough of it that you are willing to allow others to hold the opposite opinion too and not censor it?

  9. corina on June 5, 2009 | Permalink

    Funny? Ok,joke:”how did dead John Wright cross the road?…Stapled to the chicken’s back.” Haw-Haw!Now,that’s funny.

  10. Anonymous on January 24, 2012 | Permalink

    FUCKIN SICK LOW LIFE PEICES OF SHIT ITS U THAT SHUD BE DAEAD NOT INNOCENT BABYS SICK FUCKS

  11. SUSAN on January 24, 2012 | Permalink

    YOUR DAY WILL COME I HOPE U ROT IN THE DEEPEST PART OF HELL AND R TORTURED FOR ALL ETERNITY SICK FUCK

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