On Japanese Earthquake Jokes

Everytime some tragedy strikes, some comedian or person in the public spotlight decides that it'd be funny to make a joke about said tragedy (this time it was Gilbert Gottfried), and then the public reacts and says "I'm deeply offended" and then the joker gets ostracized. I've always wondered who decides if something "crosses the line" or not. I've heard it said that comedy = tragedy + time and that sometimes these jokes come too soon. Maybe. But when michael jackson was fucking kids everyone made fun of him and the fact that he fucked kids, and no one really seemed to mind. We all thought it was funny. I don't mean to compare a kid being fucked to 10k people dying, but I think we can all agree that both are terrible, horrible things that we wouldn't wish to happen to our worst enemy. I'm sure people who have lost family don't appreciate jokes made about the earthquake - do people who were molested and raped when they were kids think its funny we laugh about child molesters?

I also thought of Gaddafi and how he is responsible for the death of thousands of people every week, and how SNL makes fun of him every week and we all laugh. Do libyans with family who were JUST slaughtered by this monster think its funny?

So then I wondered if maybe the difference was that in one case we were villianizing someone who committed the heinous act resulting in the tragedy, whereas earthquake victims were hurt by no one in particular and so if we're not villianizing the person who caused the tragedy then its not funny. Am I allowed to make fun of god then? Or mother earth? Probably not. That being said we all make fun of aids all the time "Oh I fucked that whore I hope I don't have aids or something." Now maybe the people involved in getting aids were willing participants in whatever act that got them aids so its ok to make fun of. Until you consider that 600k children die from aids every year and that a good number of them were born with it. Is it still funny to make that joke?

I'm not trying to make light of the situation in japan; no one should have to experience what they went through. No one should be slaughtered by Gadafi for wanting to be able to have a say in their government; no kid should be raped; no child should be born with aids. I'm just saying that trying to draw a line in comedy is insanity.

P.S. I'm also saying that I don't have the balls to make a joke about japan!