Comedy At Whose Expense

There are all types of comedy and the only kind that I like is observation comedy where the jokes are not directed at a person or class of people. Many people like insult comedy like Don Rickles does, but I don’t because it involves getting a joke and another person’s expense.

Controversial Float Draws Mixed Reviews at Boyne City Holiday Parade
9&10 News
Posted: Jul 07, 2015
By Samantha Radeck

Mixed feelings in Boyne City over this float at the end of their Fourth of July parade.

The float depicts transgender woman, Caitlyn Jenner in a spoof of the sitcom “Two and A Half Men” in front of a Wheaties box.

It rolled out just behind the parade in Boyne City on Saturday.

Float builder Marty Moody prides himself in his satirical floats every year and says he's just trying to be funny.

But even the Boyne Area Chamber of Commerce believes this one crossed the line.
[…]
But many don't think this depiction of a transgender woman was very funny.

Lynn Gillespie and her family were appalled when they saw it.

“Well the tenor of a July Fourth parade is America, independence, freedom, acceptance -- I would think --and I didn't see that. I saw this totally away from anything that smacks of patriotism or encompassing peoples. That's what struck me is this has no place in this parade,” Gillespie said.

Yes, many people probably found it very funny, and they would probably tell me to lighten up. But those laughs came at the expense of Caitlyn Jenner and the trans community.

In the past people found blackface funny but people realized that it was insulting to blacks, well this transface and it is insulting to many in the trans community.

Northern Michigan's News Leader