beep!
Somethings are of such magnitude that it is never really appropriate to ever "take the piss" out of it. Or as we say to make fun of the event. It is sort of like joking about your grandmother's death...it just isn't right, unless of course you hated your grandmother.
As an average American and an actual eyewitness to the events (not on television), all I can say is that nothing in my life thus far can compare to how I felt that day but I refused to drape myself in the American flag and subscribe to all the "God Bless America" bullshit. It was an attack on humanity, not on America, it was barbaric and struck at the innocent. If I were to hear someone joke about it I would be sickened. On a daily basis I still have to pass a firehouse that has the pictures of 15 men who died that day trying to save others. It still saddens me to see their faces. There is nothing to joke about...at all. The pictures of the missing that were plastered all over this city for months after the disaster are burned into my memory. The caused many tears for me...these people were average, normal Joes whose only crime was being in New York City and making it to work on time that day. I don't condone the US attacks on Afghanistan or the potential war with Iraq because surely civilians have been and will be killed...no one should have to deal with that.
i think it's a classic (yet cowardly) 'get out clause' to make fun of horrific stuff and then say "oh it's human nature, it's how we survive, how we channel our fears, how we stick two fingers up to the enemy blah blah blah".....
sandra bernhard made us laugh last month discussing the 'events' without ever becoming offensive to the memory of those who died. was that wrong? i dunno.
i went to an exhibition last weekend of gigantic photographs of september 11. and i'm still awed by the horror.
the tragedy is now art.
The words do seem amusing - but only in a Brass Eye way as you say.
Have you seen the e-mail that's going around suggesting that dress code for the 11th of September should be red, white and blue, to reflect the colours of the US flag? I wouldn't have a problem with it if all of those affected were US citizens...
Anyway, it's a fine line between taking the piss out of the events and taking the piss out of the media reaction to the events.
Or something.
There will be a lot of "I remember when I heard all about it" type conversations. The BBC are broadcasting a doc. (already released in the USA) on 9/11 this year. The video is released the day after, £ to charity. It's very moving.
Laughter and jokes don't diminish the sad impact and importance of such events, but communities that allow governments to inflict similar horrors and devastation do...
It's certainly not taboo to make jokes about the invasion of Afghanistan, where more civillians were killed than S-11. Perhaps your friend was simply pointing out the irony of people with towels on their heads meaning less than revenge and patriotic fever.
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