Comedy and "retards"

For some reason comedians seem to find "retard" jokes almost as irristable as dropping the f-bomb. I like to think I'm a fairly open minded person, but I can't get my mind around why it is funny to make fun of people who have the IQ of a child for life. Through no fault of their own, people who are mentally retarded function on the level of a toddler up to the level of an elementary school student for life. Still, they learn skills and grow wiser with experience as they age, as do (most) adults.

I went to a comedy club last night, and while I put my tolerance level for offensiveness up a few notches, I still found myself getting pissed at some jokes. I believe I counted the word retard used incorrectly about five or six times. Just to make things more up to date, one comedian even threw in autistic. Then a dip-shit in the audience brought up "the short bus". This one really pisses me off. Obviously if you are making fun of people who ride "the short bus" you are making fun of school children with special needs. Oh, the hilarity! The *great part* was that most of the audience cracked up.

One comedian, the same one that said retard most of the times and said autistic, made a point of talking about how people use the word "gay" inappropriately. He made reference to someone saying that they had to work tomorrow, and that it "was so gay"; he responded with, "What, do you suck d**k for a living?" Way to stand up for gay rights! Now, on to making fun of people with mental retardation and autism! They can fend for themselves!

Grrr... Sorry for being a politically correct mom sometimes, but really, the jokes I heard at the expense of people who have autism or are mentally retarded just weren't funny to me. Maybe for the same reason that the comedian doesn't appreciate people saying things are gay... (which I don't either, by the way)