Only 2 topics for me are off limits when it comes to fucking around, that's rape, and child abuse (either physical or sexual), anything else is fair game mostly, depending on my 'audience'. There's a difference with taking the piss out of a person directly eg
"haha your dad died of cancer I hope it hurt" and "lol child abuse cracks me up"
which are obviously very shitty things to say and aren't amusing in the slightest, and eg the old derek & clive sketch which included the cancer song (and yes I know the back story on that) which is here and starts at around 2:40 (WARNING - if cancer is close to home for you and there is NO situation in which you can laugh at the subject matter, do not watch/listen). I'm not saying cancer is funny, I'm saying their routine about it is (to me anyway, though I get not everyone shares the same humour) - make sense?
I think most things are about intent/context, especially comedy, and it's too easy to decide to get offended over everything you can. Kinda like how a close friend can say almost anything, and if you know their intent isn't nasty, they get away with saying things that would have you breaking jaws if a stranger said the same. If you see/listen to a comedian, you need to realise it's like he is talking to a room full of his best friends
