When is a joke, not a joke?

When it's joking about something that really has absolutely no element of humour about it to be found. That's when.

Let me preface this by saying that I do in fact have a sense of humour. A rather ridiculous, sometimes off, sense of humour. I can see the funny side of most things, and I generally try not to take a lot of the crap you see on Facebook or other places too seriously.

But for some reason, this really rubbed me the wrong way. I thought maybe I was just reading it when I was in a bad mood. But then I saw it again and still had the same thought... This isn't something that should be joked about ever, let alone two days before Christmas.

This is what I read...

Be careful with all of the the holiday parties going on! I would like to share a personal experience with all of you about drinking and driving. As you well know, some have been known to have had brushes with the authorities on the way home from an occasional social function over the years. A couple of nights ago, I was out for an evening with friends and had several bottles of beer, a brandy chaser, and a drop of red wine. Knowing full well I may have been slightly over the limit, I did something I've never done before - I took a cab home. Sure enough, I passed a police road block, but since it was a cab, they waved it past. I arrived home safely, without incident, which was a real surprise as I have never driven a cab before and am not sure where I got it or what to do with it now that it's in my garage!!

It was a status update. It's meant to be funny. I get that. I get that it's making fun of some of those "serious" status updates that you see people copy and paste around the place.

And you might think it is funny and that I'm over-reacting or being over-sensitive. 54 people Liked that status so some people obviously think it's a laugh.

But when I read it, you know what my first thought was?

Man I hope someone who has lost a loved one to drink driving doesn't read that.

Maybe they might laugh at it too. But maybe they won't.

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It may be graphic but the reality is even worse.

Because to me, drink driving is not something to be joked about, or laughed about, or made light of with humour. It's just not. No matter what the original intent might have been.

Consider this fact from the Government's National Road Safety Strategy 2011-2020 report -

Alcohol continues to be a major factor in serious casualties, with more than
a quarter of fatal crashes involving a driver over the legal Blood Alcohol
Concentration (BAC) limit. 

One in four fatal crashes come about as a result of a driver having a blood alcohol concentration OVER the .05 limit.

One in four.

Who's laughing now?

I believe that too many people still think that it's ok to drink and get behind the wheel. Too many people don't realise just how small an amount of alcohol you need to become impaired.

To have an accident.

To kill yourself. 

Or worse, kill someone else.

Jokes like this take away from the very real consequences of drink driving.

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The simple fact of the matter is, people have accidents.

People injure themselves badly.

People die.

And over a quarter of those fatal accidents are caused by drink driving.

And there is nothing to "Like" about that.

What do you think, am I over-reacting? Do I need to lighten up? Or does it sit wrong with you too?



Linking up with Jess because it's Tuesday and you know what that means... IBOT!
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