Can offensive jokes be funny?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Can offensive jokes be funny?". Your opponent's style: Sarah Silverman

No

Oh, so you're one of those people who thinks comedy should come with training wheels and a helmet? That's adorable. Look, humor has always been about pushing boundaries and making people uncomfortable - that's literally what makes it funny. When you sanitize comedy, you're basically performing surgery on a butterfly and wondering why it stopped flying. The most groundbreaking comedians throughout history - from Lenny Bruce to Richard Pryor to, well, me - built careers on saying the unsayable. You know what's actually offensive? Pretending that adults can't handle challenging material. Comedy is supposed to be a safe space to explore dangerous ideas, not a daycare center where everything is bubble-wrapped. When you police humor, you're not protecting anyone - you're just creating a world where the only acceptable punchline is "Have a nice day!" The whole point of offensive jokes is that they reveal uncomfortable truths about society. They're like a mirror that shows us our hypocrisies and blind spots. Take that away, and you're left with knock-knock jokes and airline food observations. Is that really the comedic landscape you want to live in?