Daily Show creator Lizz Winstead was unfortunately among the chorus of people who reprimanded the Onion over a tasteless Oscar night joke about nine year-old nominee Quvenzhané Wallis.

Lizz WinsteadVerified account‏@lizzwinstead

9-year olds are always so into irony. #AndAlwaysAppreciateIt #Edgy #Fail @TheOnion

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Now Winstead has gotten herself into trouble for telling jokes in wake of the devastating Oklahoma tornado, which has killed at least 21 people, nine of whom were children.

So how could someone think that a small child who was nominated for an award wasn’t grist for humor but that a tragedy that created actual dead small children was useful for a joke about the IRS scandal? Because comedy is a subjective, unscientific thing often based on imperfect information and questionable priorities. It’s a mess, just like you and I. It doesn’t always make sense and sometimes offends, but it’s far better to live in a society that goes a little too far than one that’s repressed. Unexplored energies below the surface force their ways to the fore in often horrible ways, not merely insulting ones. Comedy is not pretty, as Steve Martin once said, but it is necessary, so we shouldn’t overreact when it goes awry. 

Lizz Winstead isn’t a bad person. She just told a bad joke.