They’re good when they’re done right, but absolutely awful when done wrong. My friends and I got together and the group tendency leaned toward the edgier side while playing the Jackbox party game, so we got to see the whole spectrum.

A good edgy joke makes you think. It’s not edgy for edginesses sake (although it can be made with that in mind), it’s edgy in a way that makes you question your preconceived notions about the world. Take the winner of the TeeKO game. It was a simply draw, smiling potted flower with the caption, “Big Brother is watching.” By incorporating a pop culture reference about government and now corporate surveillance of the masses with the kind of cute, childlike imagery used to masquerade or deflect questions about the massively trove of data being amassed on every citizen, the shirt design spoke perfectly to our woke teenage brains.

A bad edgy joke told later that night was during Fibbage, when someone made a crude reference to slavery. It was not well put together, didn’t twist the viewers’ expectations in any meaningful way (can hardly be called a joke if it doesn’t do that), and could even be interpreted as complicit with the abhorrent practice.

Finding the right balance between joking about something and being deadly serious about the issue is the essence of an influential edgy joke. At least that’s my opinion. This whole post is kind of a joke in and of itself, but I Don’t Care.

(Anyways update in the Visual Studio thing: after 3 more hours, got it to reliably compile! Yay now I can start actually developing.)