No, every joke does not have a victim, and you don't need to threaten or victimize your audience in such a political bullying way. It's lefty political nastiness, and it is so predictable, as soon as they start on politics, it is Abbott's negativeness and being a churchy speedo wearing misogynist .. then it's into anyone not a firm AGW believer. (if anyone jokes about Julia or other ALP royalty, they demand instant censorship .. see the media inquiry etc)

These are just ALP messages, that the faithful love to hear .. might as well be a religion. It's just not very funny, it's more the crowd feels compelled to laugh to be "in".

In East Germany they used to have state sponsored berators of the West .. they poked fun at them, the audience laughed and laughed .. because it was politically correct to laugh. No one dared question it there either.

I love Rowan Atkinson, YouTube has a lot of his early stuff, when he was quite young, not as well know, but very good. Fry and Laurie take the mickey out of all the PC stuff. But they are not Australians, and that's where our problem is .. we encourage a certain type of comedy, well, the government funded lefty "art" festivals do.

If you didn't play that way .. would you get a gig? No wonder Australian comedians die overseas ..

The comments here from many remind me of that funny man Tim Minchin who recently opined that "When you reject evidence as the source of knowledge, you don't gotta believe nothng that you don't like".

Gorufus, A fine example of using comedy (loosely defined) on your part to express a prejudice. Neither confrontational nor funny, though probably made you feel good saying it.

Stephen, I think the aptly named Marx Brothers were classics when it came to sending up authority, the Establishment and 'political correctness' (i.e., they were outrageous for their time). Today, in some ways, the mainstream stand-up comedians ridicule those who challenge the Establishment (on issues such as climate change). There's also a tendency on their part to send up everyday people. It's rare to see comedians directly exposing the foibles of the rich. I grew up as an avid viewer of television and a highlight remains 'The Mavis Bramston Show' of the 1960s. Nothing was spared - the RSL, the Churches, the government. Of course, Chaplin was another great who used comedy as a weapon against both the Establishment and fascism.