December 8, 2007
-
Facebook and Virginia Tech
I mentioned in my photoblog that two Penn State students dressed as Virginia Tech shooting victims for a Halloween party. Here is the link: Link
There was some discussion in my photoblog about whether it was a harmless joke or if it was twisted.
Do you think what the students did was a harmless joke or tasteless?
Comments (129)
A harmless, tasteless joke.
Tasteless.
There are so many other costumes out there – why one that depicts a bad thing that happened so recently?
Btw, didja get my email?
it was tasteless. and fucking hilarious.
tasteless. it’s too soon for that. especially if you knew the people, it’s just way too soon.
I agree with Sanvi.
It’s not funny..
I’m still not ready for Steve Irwin + Sting ray costumes
Tasteless. And another example on how we’re so desensitized, we see things like that as nothing more than a joke. That’s when you just turn away in disgust and ignore them…
I thought it was pretty fucking funny.
There’s no such thing as too soon or too late.
ULTRA DARK HUMOR ROCKS
It has been more than six months since the shootings. At some point we have to get past mourning the deaths of people we never knew. It does no one any good to not allow a little humor about an event in the past.
Like I said in your photoblog, I applaud these kids for their willingness to stand up to the stupidity that surrounds that incident and try to find some humor in the event. There is humor in everything, you just have to be willing to see it.
meh
One of the problems with American society today is that we don’t allow humor. We take everything much too seriously.
I think it was tasteless. Some things are just not amusing to joke about, and doing so is a bit pathetic and attention-whoring.
i’m a very light hearted person, and i know when i think something is funny. i often do, but this….this is not funny. at all. it never will be funny to me, but i’ve always been touched by things like that. i don’t know….
Tasteless.
It’d be one thing if they were possibly making a point of some sort, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. So tasteless. Next halloween I’ll just dress up as a holocaust victim.
Tasteless
I don’t see anything at all funny about it. Extremely tasteless. Why do people make jokes of disasters, I JUST DON’T GET IT!
Have some compassion for a change people. As far as harmless, didn’t harm me, but if I had had a son or daughter killed in that terrible act, I would have been extremely unhappy that my kids were remembered in that way.
tasteless. it`s like dressing up as hurricane katrina. sorry, but the wounds are still fresh.
tasteless
that’s really messed up. it’s never okay to make fun of people who lost their lives.
its something a nazi would do
Completely tastless, disrepectful, and inapproprate. I did not find that funny in the least bit. and if I couldn’t find any humor, do you think victims’ families will? friends?
Some people just need to grow up and learn that not everything is to be made a joke.
But then, I’ve never been one to be impressed by doing something simply for the shock value. It’s always kind of screamed “I’m desperate” to me.
I think it was pretty tasteless and cruel.
I have friends who were on campus that day. Anyone who thinks it was funny is sick themselves.
tasteless and disrespectful. but apparently thats all halloween is about anymore.
that’s just sick.
if they had a relative who was brutally murdered, and someone went as them for halloween….they wouldn’t think it was so funny anymore.
insensitive bastards.
Harmless, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not tasteless as well.
Tasteless. Just tasteless.
>.<
It was about as appropriate as a turd on your dinner plate. It’s amusing that some people think we take things too seriously. Actually, the opposite is true; we take everything too lightly. A tragedy like VT’s loss is not a thing to be mocked.
Tasteless. Funny in some twisted realm, but tasteless. Like laughing during movies about Vietnam.
tasteless. insensitive. what about if we went as pearl harbor/9/11 victims?
thats really stupid. they are probably studying to be lawyers.
Very tasteless.
Tasteless..
How tasteless.
I didn’t believe people could be so low.
It’s fucking sad…
tasteless more than harmless…
Both.
You have to have a sense of humor about everything.
At the same time, being purposfully offensive is totally unnecessary.
people like this, who have no respect for the dignity of other people, or the lives of others, are the reason things like VT happen. it isnt funny, it isnt ironic. what would be funny and ironic is if they dressed up mocking the murder victims and someone offended by it shot up the party. now THERE’S a bit of irony for you, mock a shooting victim and become one because of it.
A joke is only as funny as the moment the related issue is no more of an issue. It is twisted when the tragedy is still fresh in the hearts and minds of the families affected.
I think it’s heartless. Making fun at death, can be funny, yes, in a beetle juice sort of way. But when it’s dealing with real people and events, you have crossed the line.
Tasteless.
Since no one was dealt physical harm as a result of such actions, it is harmless.
But if they were to somehow upset someone by dressing up like that and got the crap beaten out of them, it’s really their own fault.
It’s stupid and distasteful and indecent whatever it is.
I think they meant it as harmless. And to most college students it might have been “funny” or something just to be surprised at. But, to most adults I’m sure it seemed tasteless.
Great question and comments.
tasteless
that’s fucking sick… excuse my language. but it’s well deserved.
it was stupid but, teens aren’t normally known for thinking things through.
When you reduce “murder” to a joke, dare I think it, one should truly re-evaluate their morals. This was “gross” and not merely tasteless. It takes “goulish” onto new horizons. Not funny or unique. Misguided souls do misguided things…and you are what you think!
Very tasteless. I’m sure they wouldn’t have dressed that way if someone they knew had been killed in that incident.
Pretty damned disrespectful, tasteless and crude. It seems that people want to do everything they can for friggin’ shock value and then say “it’s just a joke”. There is a line. This crossed it.
tasteless joke.
Tasteless…
I’m appalled that anyone could honestly find humor in this. It’s disgusting and disrespectful. They should be ashamed.
How would you like it if your dad or your best friend or your daughter was shot and killed and somebody dressed up as them with bullet wounds for Halloween. Maybe it was mean to be funny, but if you really think about it; it’s twisted!
Ditto what many have said: “tasteless.”
My gut reaction reading this was that those two costumed idiots are insensitive and just brainless. Kinda like the time Prince Harry went to a party in a Nazi costume.
Have a great weekend! Hugs’n'Smooches!
Both–harmless and tasteless
And a sad, sad testament to the desensitization of youth that has occurred of late…
Harmless? Probably. Tasteless? Definitely! I agree with PollyannaPest in that it is the difference between college students and adults. The maturity level simply is not there with many college students. I remember my days back then. I did some pretty stupid and insensitive things that I would not consider today. Were they funny? Possibly. But, when we mature as adults I would like to think that we develop some sense of propriety. They just don’t seem to understand that it was inappropriate. Then, again, I have noticed a general lack of a sense of propriety with many people over the past few years. Could it be a change (for the worse) in societal mores? Slippery slope indeed.
tasteless
thats twisted
Totallt and completely tasteless.
I am all for offensive jokes… but against victims like that I have a problem with. People in a position of leadership are prepared to have jokes made at their expense (it’s comes with the territory of being president).. entire groups of people can laugh at their stereotypes. But I fail to see how a shooting is funny. It’s tasteless, attention whoring, crass, disrespectful…
thats horrible! they probably weren’t thinking about it but what about all those people that were killed there? Did they think it might be a bad idea? or hurt those peoples families that have to live with the fact that their children are gone forever?
I think its completely tasteless. But they got what they wanted. Shock value.
that’s horrible
That’s not funny. At all.
It’s stupid and really immature.
<33
I agree with MrColorful, we’re way too serious.
If I had been shot, I would want people to laugh about my life, and hopefully my death.
Tasteless and harmful!
Tasteless. Period.
very tasteless
I mean, it’s harmless, but I don’t particularly think it’s funny. It’s completely within their rights to do that, though.
Utterly ridiculous! Not funny at all to me, just low class and sick.
tasteless. eboresow’s absolutely right.
It’s pretty tasteless, but it’s well within their rights to do it.
Extremely tasteless, but they are college kids just experimenting with everything… tasteless but overall harmless I guess. Just the same, it’s sort of sickening that they don’t have anything better to do than mock the victims of a psychotic gunman. It could have been them at their school just as easily… Would they find it funny, in that case, if Virginia Tech people had dressed like them for Halloween? I doubt it, somehow.
As a Blacksburg resident, I find it totally tasteless, insensitive, and
self-centered. Our small town went through a horribly dark and terrifying
moment. To make light of something so depraved and devastating reveals
a huge immaturity and the inability to empathize with anyone beyond one’s own small world. Blacksburg is a small town, and what happened touched everyone who lives there. I have friends who were in each of those buildings. My mother still freezes every time she hears a siren. The town was full of them that day. Even months later, it is a different place to live. It will never be appropriate to act as though murder is entertaining or funny, especially one that has affected so many people.
It’s a harmless joke. Maybe posting them was a bit tasteless?
tasteless
a tasteless, harmless joke
tasteless.
Thats fucked up.
It depends on why they did it. On Halloween, you’re supposed to dress up as something scary or shocking. I think any act that breaks people out of their comfort zone has some value to it (and based on the conversation happening here, I would say this applies).
Bertolt Brecht saw theater as a way to shock people into new ways of thinking. “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which
to shape it.”
I’m not saying that these kids weren’t acting in bad taste. But they had an effect…
Harmless and tasteless.
Completely tasteless.
Very tasteless. That’s wrong.
Harmless and tasteless.
Unbelievably tasteless.
Absolutely tasteless. There’s nothing funny about murder assholes.
Fucking twisted and completely tasteless.
Sickos.
“Bertolt Brecht saw theater as a way to shock people into new ways of thinking. “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which
to shape it.” – mama_jess
Bertolt Brecht is also one of the most uninteresting playwrights ever who tries too hard to make profound social commentaries and fails by losing a grip on reality.
People need to learn to take a joke and stop taking everything so personally.
Humor has nothing to do with it! This is tasteless and beyond “normal” thinking.
Tasteless!
Harmless joke, I agree with MrColorful, people need to learn to get a sense of humor.
Horrid.
Tasteless, and begging for attention.
It reminds me of people dressing up as Stever Erwin being pierced by the stingray last halloween.
I think the point was to get attention. I do believe it was pretty much tasteless, but I’ve heard of worse.
of COURSE it was twisted.
in order to be a “joke”, it has to be funny. somehow I don’t see how innocent people being brutally murdered is funny.
also:
“He said the outfits were worn to a small party and meant to be private.”
THEN WHY PUT THEM ON FUCKING FACEBOOK?
assholes.
It dosen’t pay to think that over too much. Sure, it was bad taste but I bet at the time it seemed clever to them. Probably to all the other students around them until somebody said different.
Wow, that is not funny at all. Such bad taste.
tasteless
> Tasteless!!! Shock value is one thing; I live on the buckle of the bible belt, and my favorite tee shirt is black and in white letters says ‘these are my church clothes’. I get alot of comments, mostly ‘where’d you get that?’. But my state is reputed to have more churches per capita than most if not all other states, so I do get peculiar looks from other folks here. The question is always the same as the statement on the shirt. WHY?
Peace
Tasteless, but the chick in the first picture looks tasty………
Well, it was a private party and the uploaded pictures were meant to be private. Overall, it was tasteless, but intended for shock value–therefore by its very nature it’s going to be tasteless. Regardless, it didn’t deserve the massive, violent reaction that it received. I mean, naturally people are still going to be offended, but one of the steps to getting past emotional grieving is the ability to laugh about it.
I think this is rude and disrespectful to those who died in the Virginia Tech. incident and these people should be old enough to know that!
it was tasteless, tacky, and tactless…. i have an awesome sense of humor, but there was nothing funny about those pictures. anyone that says that we need to ease up and quit being so serious need to be a little more thoughtful to the families and loved ones of those lost that day and other horrific occurances for that matter…. have a heart, will ya? where has the compassion gone?
…..completely tastless
Tasteless and pretty disturbing.
This really has me scratching my head. I’m not sure how I feel on it.
That is totally tasteless. What morons.
disgusting… if you have ever lost anyone to death, you never get over the mourning. This proves how heartless Americans have become.
harmless and tasteless
I saw that someone said that we should find the humor in things…whah? How is there ever humor in a school shooting?
is that the best they could come up with….
tasteless and rude.
I 100% agree with eboresow above…..nuff said…..
OK, I can see the humor in some things, for example, when they dress up as Hitler on SNL and make fun of him. However, it’s one thing to dress up as Hitler and make fun, but it’s completely different to dress up as a Holocaust victim and make fun. Just pointing that out… not funny.
Tasteless. It’s not a matter of being too soon, it’s a matter of crude humor at best. Not funny at all, and obviously not a sign of respect.
I’m upset by it. There was and never will be anything funny about what happened at Virginia Tech, and I am disgusted by the fact that anyone would try to find humor in such an event. It was a terrible tragedy and not something to make light of.
It is good to see the up side to things, and it is good to search for humor in things, usually. Honestly though, is there anything funny about the loss of life that occurred that day? No. I wouldn’t simply say it was tasteless, I’d say it was wrong and sick of these students to dress up as victims for a costume party.
That’s…..horrible. Tasteless.
Think about the students who died…just think about it.
-
I think that is really messed up.
Both
I don’t find it funny at all
Great, they WOULD be from Penn State.
Totally tasteless.
ummm, i think that the tards to shoot schools up are the ones screaming “desperate” … not the ones dressing up as victims. thats what halloween has always been about. why does it suddenly matter WHO’S victim were are? wow
Totally fuckin’ tasteless and if I should say, fucked up, as well.
That was wrong. I hope they grow up someday. Not everything is okay to be made into a joke.