Brickbat: You Think That's Funny?

In the United Kingdom, the Labour Party government has proposed changes to the Employment Rights Bill that would make employers liable if their employees are offended by customers or the public. Pub owners say this will turn them into "banter cops," trying to stop customers from telling jokes or making off-color remarks that may offend their staff. Academics say that universities and other venues will become less likely to book controversial speakers and artists for fear of being sued for remarks those people or members of the audience might make.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
It's 2024. Comedy is socially verboten.
Hey, did you hear about that island of garbage that's out floating in our Caribbean?
Great Britain isn't in the Caribbean, friend.
Mayhaps you’ve not heard of the last time a comedian told a joke.
It was literally the same as Hitler killing millions of Jews.
I was merely implying that Airstrip One is the real floating island of garbage. Puerto Rico has a lot of banana-republic policies, but I think the UK now outdoes it in the domain of garbage governance.
THE JOKE ABOUT PUERTO RICO IS LITERALLY KILLING MILLIONS. BILLIONS MAYBE.
I NEED YOU TO TAKE THE EXISTENTIAL THREAT THAT COMEDY IS TO THE HUMAN RACE SERIOUSLY.
It’s the Holocaust of comedy!
Hahaha. Comedy noted. The left’s freak out over a stupid joke by Tony is very funny in itself.
"Did you hear about that floating pile of garbage called P.R."
"TRUMP AND HIS SUPPORTERS ARE NAZI'S THAT WANT TO MURDER PUERTORICANS".
comedy isn't even on the horizon until dead babies are on the menu.
Translation: WAAAAH! My Reincarnated Jesus Candidate hired a comedian as idiotic as He and Vance. Now people are meanly pointing to the doodoo they stepped in.
you should be old enough to know the difference between doo and doo doo
It’s 2024. Comedy is socially verboten.
Is it? It seems like a potentially hilarious unintended consequence that comedy is actually mandatory.
If the most offensive guy in the bar is a paid contractor, you can't get sued by the customers.
Actually, come to think of it:
Q: Whats an ugly brown and green color and doesn't go anywhere?
A: A dead baby in the front seat of a Jaguar.
Q: What's the difference between a dead baby and a tea kettle?
A: The tea kettle whistles after you've left it on the stove long enough.
Q: What's the difference between a
soccerfootball and a dead baby?A: I've never kicked a... football 50 y... meters.
Say your prayers Labour Party!
dammit I should have scrolled down two before I posted above.
also as a survivor of middle & high school in New Jersey I'm still lol'ing at the east coast of Pennsylvania thing from Monday
Am I wrong in thinking that dead baby jokes within 200 ft. of an abortion clinic are protected speech in the UK?
I'm not certain "breathtaking" won't get you thrown in London Tower.
could he argue that the complainer is offending him and file a complaint as well?
absolutely.
Uh hilk, uh hilk: Rum, Romanism and Rebellion, uh hilk, uh hilk. Republicans raise crashes and depressions from the peaks of prosperity, and snatch defeat from the potty-mouthed jaws of victory. It's a shunned tradidiocy.
Mask mandate police would become speech mandate police? Metrotossers rejoice!
And here I am thinking Great Britain defeated the fascists.
Neither Hitler nor Stalin would pass a law this restrictive. I mean Hitler would only get upset about jokes about Hitler. And Stalin would just disappear people regardless of what they said.
Neither would go here. Why on Earth would people vote for these people?
Labour are Reds (in an international socialist sense of the word).
Another example showing that the Progressive Left are humorless scolds who want to use the State’s monopoly on violence to prevent the plebs and proles from free discussion of life which includes offensive talk (where the Progressives define what “offensive” is).
Language police? That's not all the Labour Party has been up to:
"Around a hundred UK Labour politicians are campaigning on behalf of Kamala Harris across battleground states. Isn’t this foreign election interference? Imagine if members of the Russian Duma did this."
https://x.com/stillgray/status/1846875197267394585
Imagine if they were telling jokes!
How long until Orwell's books are banned in the UK?
Do they still show Benny Hill reruns?
You mean they aren't already?
Burmese Days was banned by the colonial puppet UK government running India.
so what I have to leave my Big Book of British Smiles stateside now?
Is this the same Labour Party that has operatives in the United States attempting to fortify the election for Harris?
Aha! So after Orangopox Drumpf gets his ass bounced off the pavement in THREE popular and TWO electoral vote counts, it'll be because those mean limey looters kicked sand in his wattles. Nothing like having excuses lined up even before the failure flops out. No pro-choice Dems are going to defect and vote Jesus Caucus libertarian, that's fer shoor!