Justin Carter: Jailed For FB Comment

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I would agree that the concept of jokes in relation to free speech is handled inconsistently. If it were handled consistently, however, the argument that the kid shouldn't have gotten arrested because of his "rights to free speech" would not have been valid. After all, if you can't joke around and scream "fire!" in a theater, then neither should you be able to joke around and claim you're going to murder people (which would also apply to paid comedians).

You absolutely should IMO. The difference between yelling "fire!" in a theater and joking about murder is that in the former example the joke is both experienced involuntarily and is not immediately perceived as a joke. If you go to see a stand-up comedian with an extreme sense of humor however you are well within your rights to simply leave and you need not be exposed to it any more than you wish. Plus, the context makes it abundantly obvious that whatever the comedian says is a joke and should be taken as such. The distinction is made between whether it is a joke at somebody else's expense (or without the other person realizing it's a joke and especially if it results in distress or physical harm to the person hearing it) or simply a comment intended to evoke laughter. Somebody being offended by a joke however is not grounds enough for the freedom of speech to be abridged, even if it is in incredibly poor taste.

EDIT: Also, if you go up to someone and tell them you are going to set a school bus on fire or whatever at some point that stops being a joke and becomes a potential confession. Saying something like that for ironic effect to someone who is guaranteed to understand the joke should be perfectly acceptable (and in theory is). If it's not followed by a confirmation that it was in fact only a joke then I think there is cause for alarm if the joke was made ambiguously. The kid in question not only said he was joking but he structured his "joke" in such a way that it would be construed by fluent English speakers as sarcasm.