What about humor based on racial or cultural stereotypes; is that ever funny?
In my own humble and lowbrow opinion, the answer is YES. That's not to say at all that LCD stuff is automatically funny by any stretch, but if someone can make it work, there's no such thing as a topic that's so taboo it can not be funny regardless of how well the joke comes off.
I'm sure many think otherwise, but comedy has always been my thing so I'd prefer to judge something on the cleverness of the payoff than running it through a sensitivity filter. If the joke itself is funny, I can laugh at religion, child abuse, rape, racial humor, whatever (someone mentioned Michael Richards earlier. To me as much as anything his crime wasn't the use of the word but the fact there was no humor whatsoever to justify it. That's what happens when non-comedians step to the microphone and try to be funny. Like any other profession it's best left to those who understand the business).
Of course, it also depends on context as well as the venue. While I personally think people are getting their panties in too much of a bunch over this, I also understand that network television, regardless of the hour of day, is setting themselves up for trouble if they cross lines which would be fine in a comedy club setting.
On this particular skit, I mainly judged it on the merit of "compared to the other garbage that passes for comedy on SNL." And by that standard alone, it was funny.
If that sounded too across-the-board, I do apologize. Cough syrup with codiene can be a little brain-scrambling.
