I personally find that humor is ONLY contextual. Therefore, choosing your audience is just as important as designing your joke.

Speaking of which, I do not believe “Artistic License” is a real thing; it is just rhetoric for artists to defend themselves when they do something that makes people upset. Artists cannot just do whatever they want and demand that others recognize it as art. It must be understood as art by the audience and it is the artist’s job to convince them that it is.

I must clarify that I don’t think artists should be legally limited to producing art that only makes everyone happy (impossible).

Instead, I think comedians (and artists alike) need to accept responsibility for their jokes when they fall short of laughter. A joke is supposed to make people laugh (or cringe, etc), and if it doesn’t do that, then you’ve either failed at applying your joke or choosing your audience.

And with that said, most times you can’t limit your audience to just a few people (unless it’s between friends). So, if you make a joke, make sure it will be understood as a joke. If it enrages a great many people, OWN IT. Don’t blame your failure on the audience. That’s just normal, everyday bad showmanship.