The Australian Dictionary of Invisible Culture for Teachers
shock value in humour
attitude: some people can think like this (see more)
It can be like this:
Something bad is happening now. People here think: We can’t say something bad about it.
People here know what I think about it. I know people here want me to say something good about it. I say something very bad about it.
I want other people to laugh because of this.
Note
This 'shock value' is the one related to 'irreverence' not the more serious version such as in scare campaigns."Val's dad just died, one week before Val's birthday. Val can say something like 'Well, he could have just said he didn't want to come to my birthday party'."
"Ben and Rick are discussing the tsunami in Indonesia. Ben can say something like 'Bloody lucky aren't they? At least they don't have to do the washing for a while!'"
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