Race. Ethnicity. 9/11. WHEN COMICS CROSS THE LINE

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Byline: RACHEL DAVIS

Hey, did you hear the one about the World Trade Center?

Probably not.

Although it's been five years, you'll still be hard-pressed to find a joke about 9/11. Sure, there are wisecracks about bin Laden and airport security, but jokes about the attacks have been slow in entering the mainstream. Now some are popping up on Web sites and even on a morning radio show heard locally.

Why the wait? After all, there were jokes within hours of Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle's plane crash into the side of another New York building in October. And you can turn on Leno and hear him crack about Michael Jackson and child molestation. You tune into the animated South Park and see Santa Claus get electrocuted by terrorists.

Carlos Mencia uses the n-word and his audience laughs. Andy Dick uses it at a Los Angeles comedy club and apologizes.

It's almost as if there are unwritten rules in a medium we generally consider boundless. The dozen comedians and behaviorists we consulted agree that's the case.

Most people have a particularly hard time laughing at events that leave most of us feeling violated.

"It requires detachment to be able to appreciate the humor," said Keith Durkin, an Ohio Northern University sociologist who studies humor.

Which is why it was hard for even the edgiest comedians to sell early 9/11 jokes without couching them somehow. Legendary comedian George Carlin said in an interview with the Times-Union last week there are lines in comedy that some comedians don't cross because of fear. He said they should. But when comedian …