Sure it can. One joke was about how there was a video of the vegas shooting, and there was a guy running out of the frame with a full beer, as if shielding the beer was the most important thing in that situation. "The beer must've been pretty expensive... But the shots were free."

It's tasteless, yeah. But it's comedy. It's hard to say there are limits.

If someone tells a joke and nobody laughs, was it a joke?

Well, judging by the upvotes, I'd say it got a few. :)

IIRC Gilbert Gottfried made a 9/11 joke very soon after it happened (though that was generally agreed to be in poor taste).

[edit] It was 18 days after 9/11 at the Friars club roast of Hugh Hefner

Also, I recall a celebrity had a dead crocodile hunter costume for Halloween (Irwin died in September).

[edit] It was Bill Maher.

> IIRC Gilbert Gottfried made a 9/11 joke very soon after it happened (though that was generally agreed to be in poor taste).

So it didn't fly?

Norm McDonald also made a routine about Steve Irwin's death in the Daily Show a couple days after it happened.

I think that bit was awesome. Norm MacDonald is a great comedian, and he can deliver everything just perfectly.

That's a perfect example of a comedian taking something supposedly solemn and turning it funny. Kind of like when a chef takes an off-cut of meat and turns it into something delicious.