Ghengis_John
[13] Hero
Respect and not making jokes are two very different items.
I love his music, think his personal life was a mess and I find the jokes rather amusing. Death shouldn't be such a taboo.
My favourite one so far:
The real reason MJ died? Food poisoning: he ate 12 year old nuts.
I can see the respect there all right. The kind of joke that works with respect to the dead is one where you remind the listeners of something they might have hated and still loved about the deceased. I don't buy that you're making some artistic statement about tearing down the public's perception of death by cracking a joke only a retarded 10 year old with ADD would find funny. If you truly believed in the charade you've put forth, as you've put it forth, instead of hiding behind a telephone wire to assail a stranger, take a shit on the coffin at your next family funeral and see how it goes over. Be sure to shout "Death shouldn't be such a taboo!" as you do so and maybe flip the crowd off for good measure.
If you can't honestly say you would or could tell a joke in front of that person's kin without getting evicted from funeral services then you know damn well if it's respectful or not.