In what twisted universe did Joan Rivers think people would find this funny?

I’ll go first: I’ve laughed at an inappropriate joke before.

I’ve giggled in spite of myself; even though I knew better. And when someone has chastised the joke-maker for going too far, I’ve felt suitably ashamed of my role in the whole caboodle.

But there are some things that you do not joke about. And on the very, very, very top of the list of things that are Just. Not. Funny. – is the Holocaust.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: Joan Rivers.

After seeing German-born model Heidi Klum in a fairly revealing gown at the Oscars after-party this week, the host of Fashion Police said:

“The last time a German looked this hot was when they were pushing Jews into the ovens.”

Watch the clip here:

Yeah. Really not funny Joan. Or clever. Or witty.

Or, well – look, I’m sure, we all misspeak or say something distasteful on occasion but – COME ON.

I was just getting started on my ‘that’s racist Joan’ rant in the office, when one of my colleagues pointed out that Joan herself is Jewish.

Not being much of a celebrity-follower, I didn’t know this. And a quick dabble in the world of Google reveals that Joan is no stranger to controversy over Nazi or Holocaust related ‘humour’. (Last year she compared retailing giant Costco to the Nazi Party because they chose not to become a distributor of her book).

When asked if she’d retract the comments, Joan refused, saying instead that:

My husband lost the majority of his family at Auschwitz, and I can assure you that I have always made it a point to remind people of the Holocaust through humour.

Implicit in this statement (I’m not going to dignify it with the descriptor of ‘defense’) is the idea that a racist joke, no matter how outrageous, is acceptable if the maker is a member of that particular race.

And while in no way endorsing Joan’s statement, that particular position is one which I have sympathy for and have defended in the past.

I think racial humour can be funny when used in the right way, most particularly when poking gentle fun at racial stereotypes and by doing so, challenging them implicitly.

Racial humour can be extremely effective in sending a message or making a point – be that point political, cultural or even just hysterical.

It was black comedians and music artists who took ownership of the word ‘nigger’ and reappropriated it using satire, so that it’s become an almost brother-like term of endearment despite its dark roots. Many of my Indian and Sri Lankan friends take great pride in referring to themselves as ‘curries’ despite the fact that was the same term was applied to them by bullying kids in the school yard.

Aussie comedians, Aamer Rahman and Nazeem Hussain use a ton of racial humour in their comedy show Fear of a Brown Planet but they do it by harnessing the irony of their own situation; two young Muslim blokes living in a country where a lot of people fear and mistrust them without any meaningful reason to.

So where is the line? How come these ‘insider’ jokes work but Joan River’s didn’t?

Well, I think Joan’s joke fails principally because there is not satire or irony going on there. The joke makes no broader point about the vilification of Jews; it’s just a really whack analogy.

Secondly, the humour is not at all self-deprecating or even self-identifying; you could hear the joke without realising that Joan and her family are Jewish. The joke is based on ‘othering’.

Thirdly and finally, it seems that Joan is attempting to compliment Klum’s appearance by reference to the murder of millions of people.

Her joke sets up gas chambers, burnt bodies and mass graves as somehow comparative to a sexually attractive woman and that is not so much in poor taste as downright foul.

Joan’s joke was an offensive disaster and in my opinion, she should apologise and retract her comments. But having said that, I do believe that when it comes to racial humour, political correctness can go too far.

When used in the right way and employed by a skillful comic, racial humour can be incredibly important. And if we declare all forms of racial humour to be unacceptable then we miss an important opportunity to use that humour to educate, to ease tension and to foster cultural understanding.

We also miss the opportunity to laugh. And that is a tragedy indeed.

What do you think? Can racist jokes ever be funny?