How do you feel about religious humor in Second Life?

[Fauve Aeon]

8 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

My humor is not intended to denigrate, but rather to illuminate the human condition with a warm, yet revealing, light.

For what it's worth ($30, and naught more than some potential small legal recognition) I'm an ordained minister of Universal Life Church, registered with the State of Wisconsin. Though my "ministry" is a bit tongue-in-cheek, I'll preside over Mom's funeral and the wedding of my cousin this summer with all the thoughtful consideration those events deserve. Mom's life was full of laughter. I hope my cousin and his wife will share a long future together, filled with laughter. They picked me because they both love irony and could imagine nothing more amusing than being married by a smart-ass atheist who preaches their own most cherished belief, kindness to others. Whether I send people home laughing or crying, my goal is to celebrate the lives, past and future, of the people involved and the little communities that surround them.

I know several ULC ministers like you, a kind of ministering angel for sure. It makes me really happy that many states and places recognize and register these credentials. I’ve thought of getting them myself because I know there would be situations where they would benefit friends in the days to come. I just might.

[LunaRavencroft]

1 minute ago, Luna Bliss said:

Tomato soup though is really ketchup and cream, usually with a little sugar, so same ingredients.

And I'm just being silly...

Just... No... lol But now I've got a really disturbing image of one of the worst possible ice creams that may actually exist, stuck in my head. O_O 

[Luna Bliss]

15 minutes ago, Fauve Aeon said:

It’s not always meant as a hurtful thing

True, when our intent is not to hurt it's not a hurtful thing from our perspective.

When I say "it's a hurtful" thing I'm coming from their perspective mainly (if that's how they feel, and they often do if you make fun of what they find helps or empowers them).

This can be difficult to sort out, but I'd only say for sure that if we recognize the other is truly feeling hurt at a deep level then we should stop.

 

Edited May 24, 2020 by Luna Bliss

[Fauve Aeon]

8 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

I simply don't believe that if I can't get through to someone they are 'out to get me' or trolling.  I entertain the idea that it's possible they might be doing the best they can while still, in the best way possible, continue to provide that mirror.

That’s why I made my posts, expressed my doubts as to whether or not it’s trolling (I have no way of really knowing) but also tried to provide something helpful too. Then left it alone. For me that’s a fair course to follow. 

[Luna Bliss]

4 minutes ago, LunaRavencroft said:

7 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

Tomato soup though is really ketchup and cream, usually with a little sugar, so same ingredients.

And I'm just being silly...

Just... No... lol But now I've got a really disturbing image of one of the worst possible ice creams that may actually exist, stuck in my head. O_O 

Oh, I forgot to add, we have to freeze it so it's a kind of borshe (sp) soup/ice cream combo.

Edited May 24, 2020 by Luna Bliss

[Gatogateau]

1 hour ago, Fauve Aeon said:

It has to do with Implying you know more about something in a conversation via an irrelevant reference and getting called out on it.

My mother is a psychologist but it just lets me know how much I do NOT know, not tells me I have some special knowledge. 

humor...is...subjective. We get it, there are specific things you do not find funny... you told us, and then told us again a few more times...saying it in yet another way one more time is not getting your point across, it’s just annoying more and more people. You can’t see this? 

I think the answer to your last question has been demonstrated to be "no"...alas.

Regardless, thank you on behalf of... well...me! Probably lots of people, but I shouldn't assume. But I will. "Lots of people."

 

[Fauve Aeon]

3 minutes ago, LunaRavencroft said:

Just... No... lol But now I've got a really disturbing image of one of the worst possible ice creams that may actually exist, stuck in my head. O_O 

Everything is possible, and tomato IS a fruit...

[Fauve Aeon]

3 minutes ago, Gatogateau said:

I think the answer to your last question has been demonstrated to be "no"...alas.

Regardless, thank you on behalf of... well...me! Probably lots of people, but I shouldn't assume. But I will. "Lots of people."

 

Aws! Kitty hugs are best hugs! Yay! 

 

[Selene Gregoire]

Ohhh kay. I won't be buying Haagen-Dazs any more. Vegetable ice cream? YUCK!

[FairreLilette]

24 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

You should have included my entire quote, which was:

"But making fun of others is based on hurt. With the 'god speaks to me through toast' people we are saying (usually) they are being stupid. That's a hurtful thing to do to another, to tell them their beliefs are stupid.  The only question really is whether that is okay to do. I believe in some cases it's okay to be hurtful if it serves a greater purpose (bringing them back to reality). But if we are making fun of them only to make ourselves feel superior, or to feel gleeful about stamping someone down, well that's not okay. "

I take you at your word that you did not deliberately set out to hurt others. I find the toast phenomenon funny too. But we are basing our humor on not understanding where another is coming from, and in some cases seeking to take them down a notch. The result is hurtful for those who believe god talks to them in signs.

Yes, the toast thing may be hurtful to some...I just didn't think it was funny.  And, even though I've never personally heard of Jesus sightings or signs via toast, it's still stereotyped.  For the most part, stereotyping is not a valuable thing to a community and cliche humor I don't care for.

CLICHE:   

trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse, as sadder but wiser, or strong as an ox.

(in art, literature, drama, etc.) a trite or hackneyed plot, character development, use of color, musical expression, etc.

anything that has become trite or commonplace through overuse.

 

Edited May 24, 2020 by FairreLilette

[LunaRavencroft]

7 minutes ago, Fauve Aeon said:

Everything is possible, and tomato IS a fruit...

Please make it stop.... lol

[Gatogateau]

58 minutes ago, Sylvia Tamalyn said:

Some might say this sort of behavior fits the definition of trolling. 🤔

This is me musing, in general not in specifics (like that'll make a difference).

Does "trolling" involve intention?

Say two people do the exact same posts, same circumstances, same... everything. Except, Person A makes those post with the express purpose of driving people nuts. That's it. They have no skin in the game, could easily post one way or another, and simply want to annoy the most people at the least effort. Pretty sure most people would label A a troll.

But person B, doing the same thing, has a different intent. Through whatever reason, or lack of reason, or impairment, or who knows? sound argument, is posting to express their thoughts, annoying as they are. B gets the exact same reaction from lots of annoyed people as A did. Is this person a troll?

Is the trolling in the  action or the intent?

I'm leaning more toward action because you can't know someone else's intent. But then again...

[Fauve Aeon]

2 minutes ago, Selene Gregoire said:

Ohhh kay. I won't be buying Haagen-Dazs any more. Vegetable ice cream? YUCK!

Lol, tomato basil sorbet and cucumber sorbet are both tasty, at least to me. I hang out with experimental and historical cooks though so our idea of tasty, well, ymmv. But we ALSO seem to make the best pickles too so there’s that. 😉

[Fauve Aeon]

1 minute ago, Gatogateau said:

This is me musing, in general not in specifics (like that'll make a difference).

Does "trolling" involve intention?

Say two people do the exact same posts, same circumstances, same... everything. Except, Person A makes those post with the express purpose of driving people nuts. That's it. They have no skin in the game, could easily post one way or another, and simply want to annoy the most people at the least effort. Pretty sure most people would label A a troll.

But person B, doing the same thing, has a different intent. Through whatever reason, or lack of reason, or impairment, or who knows? sound argument, is posting to express their thoughts, annoying as they are. B gets the exact same reaction from lots of annoyed people as A did. Is this person a troll?

Is the trolling in the  action or the intent?

I'm leaning more toward action because you can't know someone else's intent. But then again...

For me it’s in the repeat action, and once informed of a Negative pattern, in whether the MO is changed afterwards. If someone is kindly told that bludgeoning people over the head by repeating same old same old as their MO is not a very good or acceptable thing to do (besides not getting any headway in the conversation at all) yet they continue to do it... well then there is some information to digest, isn’t there? Maybe the person did not intend to do it and stops. That’s ideal.
 

But if they continue to behave this way, once informed, well, I am afraid I do see that as a form of trolling and I won’t engage with them anymore. 

[Luna Bliss]

4 minutes ago, FairreLilette said:

For the most part, stereotyping is not a valuable thing to a community and cliche humor I don't care for.

CLICHE:   

trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity,

Yes often the best type of humor has an element of surprise and novelty.

[Luna Bliss]

7 minutes ago, FairreLilette said:

And, even though I've never personally heard of Jesus sightings or signs via toast

Oh grasshappa, you should come to the plains, to the red states, you would not believe what occurs in these places.... 

[Gatogateau]

22 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

 

Oh, I would so be doing what Carson did, eating that first chip with a loud crunch.  The lady's reaction was spot on perfect, as was Carson's "innocent" response.

[Gatogateau]

8 minutes ago, Fauve Aeon said:

For me it’s in the repeat action, and once informed of a Negative pattern, in whether the MO is changed afterwards. If someone is kindly told that bludgeoning people over the head by repeating same old same old as their MO is not a very good or acceptable thing to do (besides not getting any headway in the conversation at all) yet they continue to do it... well then there is some information to digest, isn’t there? Maybe the person did not intend to do it and stops. That’s ideal.
 

But if they continue to behave this way, once informed, well, I am afraid I do see that as a form of trolling and I won’t engage with them anymore. 

I'd kind of like to espouse the old, "Trolling. Ya knows it when you sees it" approach, but then you start getting into the subjective things like, oh, I don't know,  religious humor.  I said to Orwar about something, in some thread, about shades of gray. I think there are a FEW instances where you might get universal agreement of, in this case, trolling. The rest are all varying shades of gray, and there really seems to be nothing where you'd get universal agreement that something is "OK" because someone, somewhere, is always looking to get offended by something/anything.

[Luna Bliss]

17 minutes ago, FairreLilette said:

I just didn't think it was funny

There is a church down the street with a big sign out front, usually spouting  nonsense such as "Adam & Eve, Not Adam & Steve", or "Homosexuals will know the wrath of God".  And of course, they believe that God talks to their denomination in all sorts of crazy ways.

And one day we had some tornado or strong downdraft rip through here and it damaged the sign, letters were hanging lopsided or gone.

I called the church and told them i thought God struck the sign because they were sending out hateful messages with it.   lol

It could be a fun thing to evaluate. Was this funny?   Was I being hurtful?  If I was being hurtful, was it okay?

[Selene Gregoire]

One thing that hasn't been touched on yet is the creative mind and how those who have creative talent can see what those who don't have creative talent or very little, can't. Those who are creative tend to use their "imaginations" more than others so they will see humor in something a "non-creative" person can't see.

[Fauve Aeon]

1 minute ago, Luna Bliss said:

There is a church down the street with a big sign out front, usually spouting  nonsense such as "Adam & Eve, Not Adam & Steve", or "Homosexuals will know the wrath of God".  And of course, they believe that God talks to their denomination in all sorts of crazy ways.

And one day we had some tornado or strong downdraft rip through here and it damaged the sign, letters were hanging lopsided or gone.

I called the church and told them i thought God struck the sign because they were sending out hateful messages with it.   lol

It could be a fun thing to evaluate. Was this funny?   Was I being hurtful?  If I was being hurtful, was it okay?

For me, what they were doing was not funny or ok in the slightest but what you did was a form of trolling, maybe ‘justified’ by the fact that what they were doing was not ok in the first place? Two wrongs and all...you know how that goes...

unless the sign was a public danger in its damaged state, you were ‘reporting’ it just to create your opportunity to give them tit for tat, right? In that case, I don’t like their MO but I don’t think yours was ok or justified either. For me it says something about me how I respond and reply, if even when I disagree and am exasperated if I can manage civility, an explanation, keeping my cool or as my grandma would have said, remain couth. I don’t always manage it. But I continue to try to do it better. 😉🤣

[Nalates Urriah]

On 5/22/2020 at 11:44 AM, Gopi Passiflora said:

The type of humor I'm talking about is the more subtle light-hearted stuff, nothing too offensive.

The reason why I ask is I'm thinking about wearing a Jesus avatar but just talk using my real personality and being witty if necessary.

Edit: After some thought, I'm not going to proceed with this after all.

Very few people actually know why they believe what they believe. Nor do they actually know anything about "their" religion and even less about other religions. That makes it impossible to know what is going to offend who. Therefore, it is always a risk to attempt humor focused on a religious concept/belief. 

Notice that comedians joke about how PEOPLE fall short of what they profess to believe. Not the actual concepts/beliefs but how people interpret and spin them for their own benefit.

[Gatogateau]

Just now, Nalates Urriah said:

Very few people actually know why they believe what they believe. Nor do they actually know anything about "their" religion and even less about other religions. That makes it impossible to know what is going to offend who. Therefore, it is always a risk to attempt humor focused on a religious concept/belief. 

Notice that comedians joke about how PEOPLE fall short of what they profess to believe. Not the actual concepts/beliefs but how people interpret and spin them for their own benefit.

While your first paragraph is true for some, I am not sure where you get your figures for stating it is "very few."

For any topic it is difficult to know what is going to offend whom.

As to the last paragraph, comedians joke about both the ways people fall short and about the actual concepts and beliefs of a religion. Have you never heard a comedian riff about, say, Scientology?

[Luna Bliss]

6 minutes ago, Fauve Aeon said:

it just to create your opportunity to give them tit for tat, right?

No, I was, in my own humorous way of entertaining myself that boring day after the storm, telling them that God speaks to others too. And my "god" was telling me that was a hateful sign.

[Dano Seale]

45 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

Sounds like an interesting way to grow up, and I can see you've explored humor a LOT

I grew up the very same way. Came to the conclusion that "good humour" was whatever the fk made me laugh! As for the "Jesus toast" stuff?...not funny in the least! Interesting sometimes when those things occur naturally (that first toast pic' was so fake and doctored ffs!) but no more interesting than spending an hour spotting dragons and "private parts" in passing clouds (even spotting "private parts" was never that humourous). Then again we Brit's often find Americans notorious for finding things side splittingly hilarious, which to us is about as funny as going on a date with Seicher and Scylla and letting them choose which movie we go see!  😵  (That's just a joke ladies ok!).

As someone said earlier, "humour/humor is subjective", that's the way it is and the way it'll always be!