When do jokes about disability stop being funny?

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To begin with, humor about a disability becomes inappropriate when it belittles/ hurts the person.

I would like to illustrate an example that I have often thought about. I was attending a teaching seminar at a local university. The speaker was Professor Carl Hurley, "The World's Funniest Professor." He joked and joked about Appalachia. Well...where I live is Appalachia. Did I find Carl Hurley offensive? No, because for one...he was also from Appalachia. He was one of us. And we all laughed together about growing up in Appalachia. However, if that speaker had delivered the same jokes and been from somewhere else---we in the audience may have found that offensive. I believe it often helps if the person telling the jokes also is of the disability or minority he/she is joking about. However---that doesn't excuse the fact that it can still be inappropriate.

When I have a public performance (my music ministry), I often tell at least one joke about having Asperger's. After telling the group I have Asperger's, I say, "I'll tell you what it's like (with Asperger's)...my wife comes home from from the grocery store with her arms overflowing with grocery bags...she stands at the doorway looking at me as she fights not to drop the eggs...and she keeps going (clearing throat noise) as she makes these strange gestures at me...so I get her a cough drop."

Well I think that it is most offensive when the joke is directed at you. I think it's not a joke but rather an insult.

I was at a comedy show a few weeks and the support act cracked a joke, which some might be offended by. Here goes, please remember it's not my joke:

I like how ASDA (supermarket owned by Walmart) make an effort to employ people with mental illnesses. However, it can be a bit of a nuisance sometimes. I was looking for something and couldn't find it, so I asked a guy stacking the shelves if he could help. After 30 minutes of listening to a one-way discussion on how Aspergers Syndrome had affected his life I said, "No, I asked 'Do you have asp-a-ra-gus?' "

I took objection to was the fact that he called Aspergers a 'mental illness', but nothing else. I know some on here do monlogue (myself included), but is it OK for someone to make fun of them for it.

My mom has always asked to come take one or two of the bags from her. Luckily I knew she was telling me to come take them than literally asking me to do it.

I have a very morbid and straightforward sense of humor. For me, jokes are never inappropriate, I always find them amusing if they are good and fitting, no matter who might feel humiliated. Not that I'm proud of it, it is just my sense of humor. Had to learn over many years that few people share my definition of what is funny and inappropriate. I too think that most folks will see a joke inacceptable if it is specifically tailored towards a specific person they know or is present, and plays on one of their innate or acquired handicaps. I don't care if people make fun of my, they can knock themselves out. I am usually quite resistant against insults, also, which I just deem below my dignity.

I have a great sense of humor. I joke about autism, do word play, and sometimes my jokes are hurtful according to my mother. But I mostly think they're just too sensitive and stupid. But they better be autistic if they can't take a joke or have that trait of it or have some sort of cognitive problem or else it's them being an idiot. Maybe I should start telling them that but leave off the words idiot stupid or moron or imbecile or dumb so it won't be a personal attack.

I think it's only OK to joke about AS if you have AS.

I find jokes offensive if they trivialise the reality of what the joke is about. This can be a physical / mental / neurological disorder or disability, just as easily as it can be about rape, race, gender, etc., etc.,.

For me it's easier to talk about "jokes" as I find it easier to put into context, but it's still relevant:
Jokes about rape trivialise the trauma that the people who are raped are forced, against their will, to go through and the mental anguish (and sometimes physical consequenses) that they have to live with every day of their lives. Making jokes about a situation that is genuinly horrific ends up makes it more socially acceptable to use the words in every day language and makes things like rape more socially acceptable, so it's not ususal to hear things like "she was asking for it", or "let's go and rape the other team" (when they actually mean "beat / win against" another sports team!) and when a word is trivialised, all of the reality behind that word is trivialised, yet every time the word is mentioned, someone who has been through that has to re-live the trauma and the memories and the emotions associated with the topic.

Jokes about disability tend to either point out the "differences" between the person with the disability and "everybody else". Again, this trivialises the problems that anyone with that disability goes through every day of their life, rather than giving them the respect they deserve as individuals.

I don't understand how any of these types of "jokes" are funny...

A general rule of thumb is when they stop laughing with you and start laughing at you.

I think the absolute limit is probably the point at which the joke implies that the person with a disability is inherently inferior to those without.

But people can get offended quite a bit before then.

Of course, if you yourself have the disability in question, you have more leeway than most people do; so if you are going to make autism jokes and you are autistic yourself, most people will probably consider it to be a simple case of not taking yourself too seriously.