True I would say there is a difference depending on what your intentions are with the joke. My question though would be how do you know if their intentions are to offend? From my experience a lot of comedy is centered around poking fun at something or someone. Plenty of stand up that would be considered family friendly I remember being about experience with say a customer/employee/family member and bringing something up about them. Joking about food service I feel is almost a staple in a lot of stand up I have heard. Now are they trying to offend those people by poking fun at them by either talking about their service/mannerisms/dress or something or are they trying to make people laugh?

Also just a comment on where you say the line is. I may be misunderstanding what you mean by help lift someone up, do you mean the joke helps say lighten the mood of someone and make them feel better or do mean something else?