Probation ?? For a clean joke???

Not sure what is wrong with this post in JOKES !!  LOL

"because bio-staff have classified a post you wrote as "does not meet our publishing standards".   The provided clue is:

The last line is not nice, and against publishing standards."

Remember, this is posted in JOKES !!!

My roommate in college once asked me, "how do we know there is no oxygen on the moon?"
I was astonished at such a naive question coming from a university student!
"Well of course there is no oxygen on the moon!" I replied.
"If there were, the cheese would have gone bad by now."
Honestly, some people can be so dense...

Come on PAUL, this ain't FB!

I certainly thought it was funny and should not have offended anyone.  

Dennis Barrow wrote:Come on PAUL, this ain't FB!

It wasn't me.  

I looked into it a bit and found the staff member that did this.  I'm asking for some education on how the joke goes sideways.

I think the key thing to remember:  the staff is made of 40 untrained volunteers. So if something comes up where you are thinking "bad call", I would like to ask you to have a bit of patience and start a respectful query.  

If the bathwater gets chucked 20,000 times, I am not surprised if a baby or two, in time, will sometimes go on a wild ride.  I'm just grateful that we aren't hip deep in funky bathwater.

Almost every joke has the potential to offend someone.  Most jokes require someone be the butt.  

The more jokes we share, the more opportunity for offence.  That said, a lot of people really enjoy the jokes threads.  Somehow we've managed to balance it most of the time.  Sometimes we don't.  

As a side note, paul says we have 40 active volunteers.  I suspect it's quite a bit more as the list we look at only goes up to 40.  Looking behind the scenes, opinion seems to be divided.  Some people found the joke offensive, others thought it funny.  Usually, we have a system to quietly remove jokes that have this kind of strong mixed opinion, but for some reason, someone liked you enough to put it on probation.  

But like with jokes, sometimes the tone of the words doesn't translate well when put into writing. I'm not sure which way to read your request.

I personally see no cause for offense in the last line of the joke, but I can see a number of potential sticking points in the joke as a whole:

Assumes that absence of lunar oxygen is a fact.
Assumes that there is such a thing as a naive question.
Implies that not knowing about lunar composition indicates naiviete.
Implies that university students are capable of being naive.
Assumes a cause-and-effect relation between oxygen and cheese deterioration.
Implies condescension and disrespect towards those who believe in a cheese-based lunar model.

paul wheaton wrote:
If the bathwater gets chucked 20,000 times, I am not surprised if a baby or two, in time, will sometimes go on a wild ride.  I'm just grateful that we aren't hip deep in funky bathwater.

The baby has been found returned it to the bathtub!

Dc Stewart wrote:Implies condescension and disrespect towards those who believe in a cheese-based lunar model.

Jokes don't have to be rude and crude to hurt people's feelings. If someone grew up feeling constantly disrespected, they're going to be sensitive to exactly what Dc has identified.

Permies tries to be inclusive, and humor frequently gets its punchline by hurting someone's feelings. It's important to keep that in mind when choosing what jokes to post.

Consider the awards ceremony in the last year where a respected comedian made a joke about a woman's disability (she was in the audience) and her husband, quite inappropriately, punched the comedian. Although I'll totally agree that dealing with the situation with violence was inappropriate, I totally understood the man's feelings. He was defending his wife's feelings and from what I've read about the situation, she did not find the joke funny in that time and place. I would have sent the comedian in question off for sensitivity training, but I wouldn't be surprised to find many people in the audience laughed, because human's frequently laugh at others misfortune or injury.

As a child, I very much disliked 'The Three Stooges' - I did not think it was funny and had better things to do with my time. But I have grown to understand that many people found it incredibly funny. We're all different, and together we can make those differences into strength as a whole, if we accept, respect, and celebrate them.

paul wheaton wrote:

Dennis Barrow wrote:Come on PAUL, this ain't FB!

It wasn't me.  

I looked into it a bit and found the staff member that did this.  I'm asking for some education on how the joke goes sideways.

I think the key thing to remember:  the staff is made of 40 untrained volunteers. So if something comes up where you are thinking "bad call", I would like to ask you to have a bit of patience and start a respectful query.  

If the bathwater gets chucked 20,000 times, I am not surprised if a baby or two, in time, will sometimes go on a wild ride.  I'm just grateful that we aren't hip deep in funky bathwater.

I did find the whole thing funny.   The FB thing was in jest.
I love your Permies site Paul!  

Hello Dennis.  I agree that this is not offensive to me one little bit, but it is to someone.  I have a friend outside of permies and his education means everything to him.  This would set him off.  I have a thick skin and have been put down and made fun of so many times it approaches infinity. This doesn't mean others do.

This site is for a wide variety of people from all over the world.  Our wonderful staff is from all over the world.  Words have different meaning around the world.

Paul has put together a site that is the most inclusive that I have ever seen.  He has a history that has given him a great education to do so.  I started posting here, because it is a safe place where I do not get made fun of.  A site for gentle souls.

Paul loves this site so much that out of his busy schedule he still answers question here.  Think about that for a moment.  Thousands of people want a moment from Paul, and he will answer you or me.  Pretty darn cool if you ask me.

The staff I get to work with are awesome.  For me this is a privilege that has changed me in many ways. This staff is full of real people with the same issues and problems everybody in life have.  While the staff work hard to make sure this is the best permies site in the world, I will never tell one that they can't be offended by something.

Implies condescension and disrespect towards those who believe in a cheese-based lunar model
Dc Stewart, you've hit the nail SQUARELY on the head. Your response was Priceless! Now, I have to catch my breath from laughing so hard

Personally, I would find the joke funnier if the last line was omitted.

But I'm also someone who dislikes Laurel and Hardy, The Three Stooges, practical jokes, and any joke that involves insults or requires someone else to be the butt of it. Of course, in this case it's the teller of the story who is really the butt of the joke, but still, I can see how to someone who's been told they're dense, criticised for having different ideas, or similar, that last line could be offensive.

I know someone, a highly intelligent woman who's not quite neurotypical, who was told so often as a child she was stupid that the word alone distresses her.

Jane Mulberry wrote:Personally, I would find the joke funnier if the last line was omitted.

My writers group would call this a classic case of "show don't tell". The joke has already showed us that some people can be so dense. We don't need to write it again.

To state it simply as a joke all that's needed is.

How do we know there is no oxygen on the moon?"
If there were, the cheese would have gone bad by now."

Similar to:
How we know the earth isn't flat?
If it was, cats would have knocked everything off by now.

Wow.

That made me pretty sad to read that this offended someone. I honestly feel kinda offended that someone could be offended by that. Seriously.

Dan Fish wrote:Wow.

That made me pretty sad to read that this offended someone. I honestly feel kinda offended that someone could be offended by that. Seriously.

As Mark Reed just put it, so succinctly, the dense roommate doesn't even need to be in the joke for it to be funny, and it can be inclusive... "how do WE know there's no oxygen on the moon?" means we all are the subject of the self-deprecation!
There's literally no need to put anyone down, or be malicious, or condescending, and equate those behaviors with humor.
The difference between The Three Stooges, and others such as Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, or Mister Magoo, is the level of malicious violence and condescension versus the misadventures of bumbling fools, unaware of what they are doing.

Dan Fish wrote:Wow.

That made me pretty sad to read that this offended someone. I honestly feel kinda offended that someone could be offended by that. Seriously.

Thank you for making it clear it's time to lock this thread.

https://permies.com/t/2296/tnk/nice