Madeleine McCann jokes

If the same person who shows some sensitivity or writes in a touching/humane way has a history of ignorant and obnoxious remarks then I have no qualms in expressing my opinion on the subject and/or on that individual. I understand of course, as someone who only joined the community tonight, that you would be unaware of any such history and can therefore understand why my comment might seem off colour to you. That said, you mention that I 'always' behave in a certain manner. Have you been browsing on the sidelines for quite some time before joining up or are you masking your identity through the use of an alternate ID?

You will perhaps notice that I have not commented on the content of the thread itself. Nor did I comment in any way on any of the other posters who objected to it, just the one.

As to your more general comments regarding my posts and those "of my like" I will say this; having been involved with this site pretty much since it's inception I have seen a great many things here. On more occasions that I care to remember I have seen posters showing up, posting a sad story of some sort and ultimately being exposed as a current member using an alternate ID for the purposes of their own satisfaction at duping others. That or some new sign-up who's sole intent is to lead people on and/or cause disruption within the TT community. Of course there have also been a great many true and touching tales, the originators of which have, for their own reasons, decided to open their souls and spread their lives out in front of the internet at large. Many of these have received good help from the members of this site and quite often from myself and those "of my like". Call me cynical or embittered, to use your word, but I have very little belief in anything that I read on an internet forum. Experience has forced me to be sceptical of everything on this or any other discussion forum until I have satisfied myself that it is genuine.

So long as I am not contravening the site guidelines and so long as I stay true to my own moral compass I shall continue to say what I think. I do exactly the same in real life as I do on here.

Of course you can suggest it Jeremy, doesn't mean everyone agrees with you. Multiple pages of differing opinions would imply they wouldn't.

HAHA! brilliant

your maturity never ceases to amaze me keydeck.

bit of a life time grudge sort are you?

quite pathetic. i cant remember the last time i tried to wind anyone up on this site. how long has passed since i posted on this regularly? my past remarks may be ignorant, obnoxious and worse, but to tie in my previous behaviour with how i react on this topic is quite unnecessary and not clever or needed. i think you could do better by letting bygones be bygones, its utterly pathetic, though standard of your behaviour, to make a comparison in this instance.

in the same regard i could say the same of your past behaviour, but i'm content in knowing i'm a lot better than that and above it. you would do well to follow suit and avoid the snide bitchy remarks, why you feel the need to slag me off is beyond me, grow up!

One of the most sensible things you've ever said Mr Deck. I also count myself like you among the TT oldies brigade.

Nope I was one of the very first to use the Internet to find jobs abroad and find friends. I landed a job in the Gulf in a small University through the internet. I went to the States to meet an internet penpal. Not all of my internet adventures came out good.

But sod it I have a wealth of funny stories to tell the kids later and to those offline.

Mind you I went to Mongolia through an internet advert in 2000 and met my wife so there you go.

Let me jog your memory: it was the last time you posted before tonight. I don't think you have made a single useful contribution to Toytown in your entire time as a member, so for you to now swan in and take the moral high ground is pretty pathetic. The title of the thread is "Madeleine McCann jokes"; it's clear what the thread contains so if you're likely to be offended then don't click. Personally, I find it all a welcome relief from the ludicrously over-the-top coverage of the British tabloid press. You don't have to agree, but to suddenly pretend to be some moral champion is just too much for some people to take seriously.

i contribute as and when i can, when i know something someone might not that might make life easier in germany. it is however the nature of this beast that a number of members have more german experience than myself and are online a lot more than me and have therefore answered a long time before i even spot the question. sorry, i didnt know it was a competition and i didnt know that registering my disgust at some horrid jokes ticked people off so much. goodnight.

Mariposa, since you've blocked me, I'll have to post here.

You've repeatedly pm-ed me saying you find this funny-


For all our benefit - how exactly is this funny?

Oh for Christ's sake, drop it.

I will, as soon as you point out which bit is funny.

If a joke has to be explained then it's not worth explaining. Leave the poor person alone. She got it you didn't. Your panties are in a knot go out and take a breath of fresh air and relax.

Agree, I'd like to see if certain people find this subject still funny when a similar tragedy happens to their own kids or some other relative, because you never know...

Have resisted posting on this thread up to now but here goes . . . , I haven't read the thread as i recognise cnuts where they lie.

Firstly i'm astonished that Ed Bob started it and he has sunk much much lower in my estimation which will trouble him not at all i know.

Secondly, if anyone thinks that kidnap of a child and her possible murder is funny then frankly you are a sick twat and need your balls/tits nailed to the noticeboard outside whatever Town Hall you happen to live near with a big sign next to you stating your beliefs !!

I wish the pox and more on all of you that take delight in this horrendous situation.

Well it wouldn't surprise me the least if Felicity Nannies child care and Sticky Fingers playcenter were to cancel their advertising contracts with Toytown.

How is "sticky fingers" a decent name for a kindergarten? sick I tell thee!

Could it be that Editor Bob posted those jokes in order to spark exactly this discussion?

I was thinking the same thing a short while ago. Maybe there's an ulterior motive for starting this topic.

The ironic thing is that this doesn't make you any better than any of the persons who posted on this topic, I actually think it makes you worse. No one is saying they find funny what happened or might have happened to this girl.

I have no problem with 'gallows humour' or 'black jokes', but they must satisfy one important criterion: they must be funny, otherwise they are no longer sick jokes, but just sick. The limerick may be a comic form of rhyme, but inserting text about a girl being dead and raped into limerick form does not automatically make it a joke. in fact I fail to detect an iota of wit in it. You would need a peculiar sense of humour indeed to find it remotely amusing and I fully understand those who are offended by it.

Since when has Toytown been a British site? There's an awful lot of posters who don't come from Britain on here.

Personally I don't find the jokes very funny, but it is pretty normal for people to make jokes about bad things and the title of the thread makes it pretty clear what it's about.

This is sad. I can't understand what makes people feel the need to share "humor" like this. It's one thing to laugh to yourself about a child being raped and murdered, but share it with the rest of us... mmm. It's in poor form.

exactly Allershausen, people can read the title and choose not to read if they find it offensive.
I find it so funny that people that have often made a joke at the expense at someone else are getting so worked up about this and trying to take the moral ground. Like nobody has ever told an off colour joke?

Yeah, I know what you're saying Carm. I guess to me the difference with this was that it's a child. And I guess the idea of a child being abused and killed just bothers me a lot more than many of the other topics.

Did your 20!!! posts on penis size help?

I just don't understand this humour in the slightest. Maybe I am mixing with the wrong (or should I say 'right') crowd, but these types of senseless jokes disappeared from my social circle when I left school. My German colleagues can't believe the owner of this site actually started this thread... they all had a good laugh at the stupidity of that.

Will2Write Humour:


Hmmmmmm...

@Garibaldi: To me that just sounds like a silly/cheeky joke that isn't offending anyone.

maybe the person that started that thread didn't want that kind of response. Its all about perspective

I guess he cannot talk during sex as it doesn't last that long.

Good point that!

The jokes may not be that funny but this thread is hilarious!

Ruthie's about the only one who's on the ball here.

ATTENTION STUPID PEOPLE:

When a thread is entitled "Madeleine McCann jokes", it's probably not "Jokes Told by a 4-Year-Old Child Shortly Before her Kidnapping".

If you don't want to see sick jokes, DON'T CLICK ON THE THREAD. Dumbasses, every one of you. Or hypocrites. Or both.


Not nearly as low as our opinion of someone who is "offended" by sick jokes but nevertheless, clicks on the thread and then feels compelled to then post his whinge about it. Who the fuck are you, anyway?


Pity. We could've done with fewer words from you. Making the incredibly ignorant claim that only perverts and pedos would find such jokes fun shows how incredibly ignorant and clueless you are.

You grow up. Your rights are being destroyed in your home country but you're satisfied to have the tabloids spoon-feed you bullshit stories about one missing child. THAT'S what's truly disgusting.

This thread has been a godsend: more than a dozen fuckwits have outed themselves already.

Now to get this thread back on track:

[size=3]What's the difference between Madeleine McCann and Pope John Paul II?
The Pope died a virgin.

woof.

Just a simple retort BD, go fuck yourself ! Humour has to have one simple ingredient, it has to be funny ! Kidnap of a child lacks that ingredient.

Some of these 'jokes' are about as funny as face cancer.

Fair enough, take the piss out of the parents or the Portuguese police but jokes about a 4 year old being raped are just wrong.

Well, apparently raping children is hilarious. If you can't find the humor in that, then obviously you're a prude.

Would the jokes be more or less sick if the girl was only 3?
Is it OK to make joke about horrible tragedies befalling 12 year olds? What about 27?
Which jokes about injury/death/rape/terrorism/whatever do you think don't offend anyones senses?

Get off your high horses - people will always make light of the worst things in our existence. You don't have to laugh... you can carry on thinking people actually find what happened to her comedic if you want. *insert retard noise*.

What about all the other children who are raped and molested who aren't called Madeline and who aren't front page news? One reason there is humour here is because of the circus that has been made about Madeline when we know very well there are children being abused elsewhere all the time. It makes some of us feel like hypocrits to stress about this one little child-stranger when there are many, many others who could use some of this attention.

It doesn't mean it's not tragic or horrible, or that we think it's actually ha-ha funny... it's just one of those weird moments where the masses suddenly judge a certain life as more worthy of worry than others and to be honest some of these jokes might be helpful for bringing people back to earth.
Do all the parents of missing children get a free flight on a private jet to see the Pople then? (The one man who is possibly as high as you can go when it comes to lack of morals and covering up of other peoples child-abuse stories.) I'm sorry, but this is hilariously crazy and laugh-out-loud-depressing.

It only adds another dark twist to it when people get uppity about jokes yet keep strangely and serenely silent when they see other lower-profile cases of missing/abused children - we are a sad species. Thanks for making this thread even sicker and funnier with your holier than thou attitudes.

Personally I'd feel more horrified with myself for not being able to see the chilling humour in the way people have reacted to this one case but whatever, that's me - if you don't get it then you don't get it. Move along and leave us to make sense of this world in our own ways, stop judging people for something that doesn't actually affect you.

You saw the title and you still came along read the thread anyway. You're exactly the same as everyone else who stopped by, except that you think more highly of yourself.

This is just the inevitable backlash against the tabloid sensationalism surrounding this case. The parents ticked the "maximum publicity" box and they therefore have to accept that not all the resulting feedback will be positive. Sure, the kidnapping, rape and murder of a young child is disgusting, but to suggest that it is a greater tragedy than the millions of Africans condemned to death by AIDS as a result of the Church's abstinence programme, or the hundreds of millions who will lose their homes as sea levels rise, or the countless thousands murdered each year by rapists, drunk drivers or power-crazed dictators is loony. Of course I find the kid's kidnapping despicable, but in my opinion the scum on Fleet Street who conduct a trial-by-media on innocent men, ruining their lives as a result, aren't a great deal better. Humour is the only place left to turn to when faced with this sickening barrage of publicity. Face it, if the parents and kid had all been ugly, we'd never even have heard the name.

People react to not great things in life in many different ways. Remember when Princess Diana died? Within a fortnight, the interweb was flooded with Diana jpegs and somewhat off-colour jibes.
Taste is an individual thing, somethings make me laugh which other people would find silly. Or immature. Or indeed both. But it is still my taste.

For me, the disappearance of Madeleine is not terribly amusing. Possibly dead kids, even ugly ones, usually aren't fun.
The media circus around the case is.
Hence my earlier posting:

Maybe the timing was wrong, perhaps the time for such jokes isn't here yet, it may never be here for many of you.

But don't forget, TT is a commercial site, the more controversy, the higher the click-rate, the more advertisers get seen and if certain advertisers choose to move elsewhere, that's their choice on an open market. Other advertisers will replace them if necessary, the haters will post, the jokers will retaliate and that click-rate will go up. Wax on, wax off.

So "Disgusted of Düsseldorf" et al, you might not like it, but someone else does. That's the beauty of choice, it works in more than one direction.

This needs a pic.

nice post Marshbot

The Onion got it so well back in 1997.

Thank you Marshbot and STB for expressing what I was in too much of a hurry to get into, namely the psychology of humour (as well as the hypocrisy of those clicking on the thread to see what's in there and somehow feeling morally superior to others in it).

People use humour for general fun but also to get over horrible situations. Everyone's heard the phrase, "I had to laugh or I would've cried." It wasn't two hours after the Challenger Space Shuttle blew up that the first jokes were making the rounds, and this was when the Intartubes were only available to a lucky few of us who attended certain participatory universities and could read everything posted on ARPAnet that day inside an hour. Did we want the Shuttle to blow up? Fuck no. That it could was inconceivable. Humour helps get people past the most atrocious situations.

It's the parents along with certain media which decided to go for full-force exposure. While I don't blame the parents for wanting to do everything possible to find their kid, I do blame the media for coddling them and blowing this way out of proportion. Am I happy that a little kid may be dead? No, but there are lots of other kids dying every day here in the Western world. Perspective. They've gone for maximum effect and jokes being made is a necessary by-product of that.

Black humour has been a part of the English-speaking world since the beginning of the language. The passion play "Mankind" makes members of the audience sin before the actual character does (there's audience participation in the play). It's our heritage and it's our psychology. We laugh at those things which amuse us and we laugh at those things which horrify us. But it's not just us; Holocaust survivors, knowing they were going to die, used humour and say that it's what kept them from committing suicide.

I'm sorry that this kid was kidnapped and may have been abused. I'm more concerned with the thousands dying each week in Iraq, and I'm even more concerned than that about the erosion of the governments in the countries involved which not only allowed this to happen in Iraq but make it more likely that the same could easily happen again elsewhere. Why is the focus on the least important of these three things? Why all the concern over one kid (who was just as likely to grow up to be a murderer as she was a corporate CEO or Nobel Peace Prize recipient) when that which causes the deaths of hundreds of thousands barely gets a mention?

Humour gives us a break from this, no matter how brief. It takes the weight of our problems off our shoulders and allows us to take a breath, if only for a moment. We're only human.

woof.

I agree with Carm, good post there, Marshbot.

Edit: And BD too.

Excellent post marshbot, thank you for eloquently putting into words what should be obvious.

I'm particularly concerned about the hypocrisy of people who think the world is becoming too pc yet take offence at this thread.

I think most people can differentiate between PC madness and making jokes about a child ( any child, not just this one ) being kidnapped and whatever else is/has happened to this poor little bugger.

Different people become offended by different things. What offends me may not offend you and vice versa. I find the killing of many innocent people in Irag a lot more offensive than the disappearance of one child.

Point is one person can't dictate what should offend another so we either live in a world where everything we say is censored or we accept that people are allowed the freedom to make statements that may offend you. We can't have it both ways and as much as I may or may not agree with the jokes made here, to me it's much more important to defend the freedom to make those jokes.

That's a given ER, no argument there. Perhaps being a parent and having memories of things happening like the Jamie Bulger case when my son was the same age means i react violently to this kind of sick humour.

The abuse of children in any form just seems to me to be the very worst thing that anyone can imagine.

Hmmm, humor is use to dehumanize a situation, a person, or group. Can't really see the parents cracking jokes with the Pope "to get over...", know what I mean?
But for the record, I don't give a FF what people joke about.

Joke away, I ain't laughing - not about this.

I agree with BadDoggie that humor is a way of dealing with inconceivable thoughts. To think about what is possibly happening to Madeleine would be too horrible if discussed seriously.

I, for one, am glad these issues are being discussed at all, with or without humor. I don´t particularly care about Madeleine *ducking*, but I think she is symbolic for the sexual abuse of little children. I won´t go into gory detail about my life, but I have witnessed this kind of stuff (at the age of two), experienced it myself, and know plenty of people who have experienced it as well. Of course the pedophiles make me sick, but what makes me almost as sick are all the people who find it so terrible that they refuse to believe it´s true. People have an ostrich approach to child sexual abuse which is often what allows these predators to continue feeding on their prey. If people would just take their heads out of the sand, open their eyes to what is happening, and DO something about it, maybe not so much shit would happen to little kids. I live in a weird world where the perpetrators are treated normally, because no one wants to admit/believe what happened, and I am the bad guy because I insist on bringing up such unpleasant, tasteless things and I refuse to shut my mouth and play happy, nice world.

Well, newsflash: the world is not always a happy nice place. Pretending it is won´t help, one needs to actively fight the ugliness, and the first step is admitting it´s there and talking about it. Even if it is embarrassing and needs some humor to make it at all palatable as a conversation topic.

To all those who claim if we don't like the thread we shouldn't read it... well I read/contributed to this because I wanted to voice my opinion that it should be removed. I glanced at a few of the "jokes" and then stopped reading them in disgust. My heart goes out to this little girl and I cannot see anything even remotely entertaining about her potential rape and murder. Maybe that makes me a weaker person than those who joked... but then again, maybe it shows them to be pathetic and immature. Come on, raise your standards a bit... Bernard Manning-style humour is for the playground.

I cant help but wonder how long it would have lasted if I had started the thread... and how much shit I would have got in comparison to our EdBob!

Well done [s]BadBob[/s] Ed Bob!!

I think Doggie was right.. If you dont like the sound of the title.. dont click!!!

Curiosity killed the cat!