Last week, comedian Dane Cook made a tasteless, classless and way too soon joke about the Aurora, Colorado massacre. Working in front of a full house at L.A.'s Laugh Factory, the famed funny man did what all comedians are on earth to do. Make light of serious and often taboo subjects. I've included the video below for you to listen to the joke for yourself so I won't spoil it.

In response to Dane's joke, many people have taken to social media to rip him a new butt hole for being so insensitive to such a tragedy that polarized the entire continent because of it's brutal intent. But I offer this rebuttal to those who are outraged by Dane's jovial attempt. Someone had to do it.

Over the years, there have been countless tragic events that have made us stop in our tracks and pause to reflect on the situation. Most notably 9-11.   

Three weeks after the devastating events of September 11, 2001, the Friars club went ahead with a roast of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. Comedian Gilbert Gottfried was invited to take part and during his monologue he joked that he had intended to catch a plane, but couldn't get a direct flight because "they said they have to stop at the Empire State Building first." Terrible right?

But it's not as bad now as it was then. Time heals all wounds, so they say. That healing can't really begin until we learn to get back to our regular routine and start living life again. Gilbert Gottfried was that sacrificial lamb that took peoples ire over the tragedy, let it be directed to him and that's when the healing of a nation began.

Same with Dane Cook's joke about the Colorado theatre shooting. Dane decided to make the joke, he is now taking the brunt of people's anger over this senseless mess and hopefully we can let the healing begin. 

We sometimes forget, but comedians are the ones who observe life and then spin it in such a way that they can make us laugh. We just can't decide for them which aspects of life they observe.

Here's the joke... 

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