I feel your frustration. This punching-down argument really has to stop. There is no legal list of groups/people we can and cannot target. If people laugh, it is funny. If someone doesn't find if funny, that doesn't negate someone else finding it funny.

My own view on the punching-down thing is there's a difference between picking on marginalised individuals and picking on the political lobbies that claim to represent them as a kind of Borg-like collective. Many of those sanctimonious, condescending, authoritarian, humourless groups are ripe for a damn good piss-take.