It’s not worth it to try to be funny any more. It seems that whenever someone tries to tell a joke in a speech, a news conference or even a corporate blog, there’s always at least one person who gets so offended that they fuss enough to force a retraction or apology.

Seriously, it’s just not worth it to be funny.

As we all know. Humor is all a matter of taste and perspective. That’s why it’s funny. The best humor, I think, is as hilarious to one side as it is abhorrent to another. Often, the most celebrated satirists and comedians offend as many people as they entertain.

But in these days of always-on and always-on-the-record, who wants to risk having to pack-pedal and apologize for an attempt at humor? Is it really worth it any more even to tell a joke in public?

Last month an executive from Maple Leaf Foods told an off-color joke at a conference. His attempt at humor was unwise, even though everyone I spoke to thought it was pretty funny. (I, of course, was appalled.) While it was clearly insensitive to those impacted by a grave crisis from which Maple Leaf Foods is still trying to recover, I found it ironic that the media had no trouble publishing the joke in full. I guess reprinting it was essential to the story.

Yeah.

It used to be that politicians could display their sense of humor relatively safely. In fact, people rather liked Ronald Reagan’s folksy quips, LBJ’s raciness and Pierre Trudeau’s irreverence. It was good for their image back then.

But now, any jokes that are actually told by high-level politicians are generally only heard when they’re caught thinking the microphone was off or they were out-of-earshot. But now mics are always on; the video is always rolling; the “jackass” comments always get out.

So, that’s it. No more humor. No more attempts at being funny. Everything is on-the-record. The laugh you get is not worth the backlash it causes.

I’m not joking. Seriously.