Kate Hawkesby: When did this country loses its sense of humour?

COMMENT: Hot on the heels of not being able to consume alcohol at a school fundraiser, here are some other things we can't do: advertise burgers with dodgy names near kids, or show TV ads for tacos with a tablecloth being ripped away.

Burger Fuel is under fire for a billboard which advertises its "Bastard" burger being placed too close to a school.

The complaints from parents stated the billboard's location meant children had to pass it twice a day.

Had these children stopped for a nano-second to look up from their phones, or from chatting with each other, they may have noticed said billboard, read it, and been affronted by it.

God forbid the word"bastard" is shown anywhere near a child.

Unfortunately, the Advertising Standards Authority couldn't do much about it, given by the time the matter was considered, the billboard had gone, given the campaign had finished.

Was it worth getting your patties in a twist over? Who knows. Kids are likely to hear a lot worse in the school playground I'd have thought.

Then there's the taco ad. Old El Paso made a TV ad which featured an actor known for his tough guy roles, pulling a tablecloth off a table and saying, "Amigos, it's time to ditch the dull dinners".

The complaints here were that it was "menacing", "horrifying" and "very disturbing". The complainant said the ad promoted violence - and should be removed from the air, that it promoted undue aggression, that the man (let's not forget an actor, acting) appeared to be on drugs, "eg methamphetamine", the complainant claimed.

He went on to say it didn't promote community standards for dining together; rather, it suggested dinner time could be a violent occasion to be avoided. The 70-year-old complainant also moaned about promotion of anti-social behaviour.

Unsurprisingly, the Advertising Standards Authority found that guess what? The ad relied on "humour" - it concluded the ad did not encourage violence. Who knew?

Humour. What's happened to it? Are we so weighed down with being aggrieved by everything that we have literally lost the ability to find anything funny anymore?

I hope not. Because a world without burgers or tacos, or a glass of wine at the school fundraiser, sounds pretty dry to me.