arndt@squirt.DEC (03/12/84)
And I said that there was no humor left on net.women! Here's a personal word of thanks to all of you who sent me a note of appreciation for my attempt at humor on self defense for women. Yes they do take themselves too seriously. "Flaming assholes" is a little too strong though, I just think of them as empty dresses. To the few who took umbrage, same to you!!! Regards, Ken Arndt
saquigley@watmath.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) (03/13/84)
I think that sexist or racist humor is only funny when it is made by the
same group it is attacking. Otherwise it simply is offensive. Your
"humor" mr arndt, falls into the last category. If you want to be funny,
why don't you laugh at yourself instead? I am sure there is plenty of
material there for you to work on.
As far as making fun of women or feminists go, we can do a pretty good job of
laughing at ourselves if we want to; thank you for your concern or rather
no thanks, we'll take care of ourselves very well without your assistance.
I thought you said you were leaving net.women because it was so incredibly
unfunny; I guess we feminists might have a sense of humor after all since
you are still around.
Sophie Quigley
...!{decvax,allegra}!watmath!saquigleyjbf@ccieng5.UUCP (Jens Bernhard Fiederer) (03/28/84)
The "funniness" of a joke should be measured independently of its source.
Why, for example, the same joke that, told by a German, would be humorous
should be offensive when told by an Englishman is a mystery to me. If I
were restricted to telling ethnic jokes only about Germans, I would be
left with a rather miniscule repertoir (notice that I could not even tell
jokes about the areas in Germany that are traditionally joked about, such
as East Frisia (does having an East Frisian sister qualify me? If so, try:
In Ostfriesland hat man 3 mal am Tag Mus:
Morgens Apfelmus, mittags Pflaumenmus, abends Orgasmus
{ In East Frisia, they have fruit sauce 3 times a day:
Apple sauce in the morning, Plum sauce at noon,
Orgasm in the evening} )
)! If someone were willing to tell a sufficiently mixed bag of ethnic jokes
to an ethnically mixed group, I would consider it inoffensive.
Please note that continually harping on one group COULD be offensive,
either if a minority of the audience is singled out for ridicule, or
if it unifies the entire audience (in a conspiratorial way) against some
minority of which no member is present. The dividing line can be very subtle.
It usually depends on the attitude of the speaker. In the offensive case,
the offending matter is usually NOT THE JOKE BUT THE ATTITUDE.
I will appreciate nearly any joke when it is presented in an abstract way,
particularily on a medium as impersonal as the usenet. It may be revolting
to have the same joke told me in a sneering way by some narrow-minded
individual.
Azhrarn
--
Reachable as
....allegra![rayssd,rlgvax]!ccieng5!jbf
Or just address to 'native of the night' and trust in the forces of evil.