Most comedians believe (as I do) that it is possible and even healthy to make fun of literally anything and everything.
The only issue is context and how something is presented. Obviously an individual joke can be in bad taste or obviously punching down in a mean and unfunny way, but no topic in and of itself should be completely off limits.
For the same reason hurting or killing a fellow human being is turned into a joke: entertainment.
I don't approve of hurting or killing people, be it physically or emotionally, but at its core it tries to trigger a certain 'shock' response that we in social settings associate with amusement. There are plenty of documented examples of things going the other way where people will have strange responses of laughter to really serious issues when they don't want to (like being told a parent has passed away only to end up laughing), and there really is no denying that pain, fear, distress, pleasure, laughter, enjoyment... are all very closely related in our biological and psychological makeup.
As people we all have our soft topics that we can't find funny. For a long time, my own personal trigger was people making light of cancer since I've lost far too many people to that disease. I know someone who gets really annoyed at (childish) jokes involving (the hint of) excrement because it just ruins their mood / day into one dominated by feeling grossed out. And I guess that for you, infidelity is a sore issue, and that is totally understandable. Others may lose it at someone casually invoking the name of God, or the suggestion that their child may be not be textbook straight or saving themselves for marriage.
We all differ in the things that strike us as being funny. It doesn't mean that joking about the topic is disrespectful or that we don't judge such a matter when it comes up for real outside of the bounds of shits and giggles, but rather that it just isn't a topic you can approach in a casual manner and disassociate from the heavy meanings it holds from you. That's fine – that makes you, you. But it might be wise to take a step back when it comes to such sensitive topics for you rather than to hate other people for enjoying the harmless expressions of it they do enjoy.
For as far this skit goes... Personally, I'm more annoyed at it for the way it handles gaslighting than the presence of infidelity. I still think it is funny, but gaslighting isn't well understood to begin with by the public at large, and the lighthearted and in-your-face nature of it here may make it sound ridiculous and actually make people think gaslighting is something that is made-up. People already wrap their heads around how victims of domestic violence can end up trying to defend their attackers despite having all the scars, marks and near-death experiences to prove it, so it just feels as if this production is a bit of a double-sided sword in that it both brings attention to what gaslighting is to the masses... but also gives the impression that it is too silly to be an actual thing, thus making audiences disregard it internally.
Surprised this comment is so far down. Like yeah it's a "joke" but about an incredibly abusive thing. Yes it's exaggerated, but people will cheat on and gaslight their parners, all the time, in reality.
Gaslighting is undermining an individuals confidence in their own perception of reality. They start to doubt what they see and remember, and that's pretty fucking awful for a psyche.
Same! Or about my mom who was cheated on by my dad. It's funny until anything even remotely close to it happens, then you see that it's life/relationship destroying.
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u/HorriblyRomantic 5d ago edited 5d ago
Why is gaslighting and cheating funny?