jeffd@ficc.uu.net (jeff daiell) (03/24/89)
In article <16116@cup.portal.com>, Tim Philip Cadell writes: > > I disagree. I'm not a big fan of racist jokes but if a joke is making fun > of a "stereotype", it's not making fun of the race/group mentioned, it's > making fun of the stereotype. There are times when the stereotype itself is the victim of the humor -- I remember the commercial (late 60s or early 70s) about two people *making* a commercial for meatballs, and it was obvious the spot was lampooning the stereotype of Italo-Americans, not I-As themselves. But the examples previously discussed were making fun of various groups, not the stereotypes thereof. > > Can you be born Polish? Could Polish jokes offend you then? Being Jewish > is partly religious, but largely based on ancestry. Hmm. Maybe I could clarify here. People often confuse "Semitic" with "Jewish". But the two are not coterminous. Many Jews are not Semites (Liz Taylor, Sammy Davis, Jr.), and many Semites are not Jews (Yassir Arafat, Danny Thomas). So: one can be born Semitic, but one cannot be born Jewish -- how you every heard a three-month-old say Kaddish? - *not* impressive! {|8^)] > > Baptist does not include ancestry. See above. > > }>So, let me tell you an old joke. It is to be > }> told with the appropriate Jewish accent, of course. > <joke removed for terseness> > <Too late!> > }> Without the Jewish accent to make > }> it clear which stereotype is being invoked it looses quite a bit of > }> its impact. > } > }Why, Bill? You don't think Christian children -- or Islamic > }children -- find themselves in this no-win situation? Sad! > > Is there a stereotype there to be joked about? That's the point. A child of any religion could have been in that situation. > > I think you're attacking the wrong person. OK. Suggest a substitute. {|8^)] > > And since this subject is relatively serious (sad, isn't it), my *real* name > is Tim Cadell, not that that helps anyone any. :) It doesn't help me. It doesn't help Bill. But it might help the Feds when they come to take you away on a 211.c(3)(ii)b. But don't worry. It's only 3-to-10.* Jeff Daiell *Relax, Tim. That paragraph was made up. -- "Buy land. They've stopped making it." -- Mark Twain