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Another possibly interesting comparison would be with Black Sabbath. That band is responsible for a lot of groundbreaking and beautiful music, but they're are also associated with "heavy metal", which makes them absurd in most people's eyes AFAIK, sadly tainting the perception of Black Sabbath's music. On the other hand, can you really blame anyone for making fun of the metal steretypes they let themselves be pigeonholed into? Their reputation isn't even an accident, it's connected with their target audience, giving them their niche. Arguably their music was even influential in creating the "metal" culture. The takeaway here could be that there are usually different angles from which it is possible to appreciate (pop) culture, and it's stupid to let one aspect taint another, but also that there's no point in pretending an aspect doesn't exist or treating it with excessive respect (i.e., making a fuss about people joking about it). EDIT: another relevant subject here is whether there should be subjects one can't joke with. I think I would like it if nothing was off-limits to jokes (even though I'm not especially funny). E.g., I'm pretty sure September 11 is sacrosanct in USA in this regard, and there are other subjects joking about which could get many a person quite uncomfortable, like child molestation, rape, murder, suicide, etc. I myself sometimes get quite uncomfortable when I hear jokes about Holocaust and Jews, but the real issue there is not the jokes, the jokes are just a symptom of societal issues which should make one uncomfortable. I don't know what's the best way to deal with those issues, but I'm sure that making those jokes taboo is precisely what gives them a certain attractiveness and power. |