Why should comedy be about offending anybody ? The alternative to going out of your way not to offend anybody is to go out of your way to deliberately offend somebody. For me that's just a bit lazy and ****ish really. I don't really find that sort of **** funny to be honest.
Have to disagree. Most comedy is a laugh at somebody else's expense. Most top comedy. Python, Blackadder, Fools and Horses, etc etc, has made some person or group a target of their humour. Nowadays, they ttry so desperately hard to be to be completely inoffensive that they also succeed in being completely unfunny too.
He's also on record of calling children with special needs 'window lickers' mate. Talk about a wrong un.
No there weren't They are really poor examples to use. Python was pure abstract silliness. Blackadder was historical wit and slapstick, Fools and Horses was situation comedy based around a lovable rouge trader. None of them 'targeted' a group of people to mock as a vehicle for their humour.
They all took the piss out of one thing or another, especially Blacksdder. Various groups would be up in arms about some of the stuff in that nowadays. Again, it's why there's nothing funny in tv.
It's all about context though, I don't think Blackadder particularly targeted anybody. It took the piss out of the Elizabethans and World war one generals, but it's hardly the same as mocking people on race/gender grounds etc.
