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Would an ethnic joke still be racist


Alpo

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If the minority is the one that got in the zinger?

 

I'm reading this book. The world's best humorous anecdotes. From 1923.

 

Now, some of these jokes would obviously be considered racist. If the joke was about Joe or Bob, it would just be funny, but since the joke would be written in negro dialect it's obviously bad.

 

There are several jokes about the Irish, also written in dialect, which can be quite fun to try to figure out what it says. These would probably be racist, except that the Irish were white and you can't be racist against white people.

 

I found one joke so far with a Jew in it, and since the Jew turned the joke back on the other guy, and zinged the other guy, would it still be racist? It certainly an ethnic joke, but would it be a racist joke?

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An Englishman is sitting at the bar between a Scotsman and an Irishman.

 

He turned to the Scotsman and asked him, "If you weren't a Scotsman, what would you be?"

 

The Scotsman thought a moment, then replied, "I'd be an Englishman".

 

The Englishman then turned to the Irishman and asked, "If you weren't an Irishman, what would you be?"

 

The Irishman responded, "I'd be ashamed".

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I don’t know that I ever found ethnic-based jokes to be that funny.
 

Cutting people down because of their heritage?  I just don’t get it. 
 

But making jokes about engineers and our stereotypic quirks?  I enjoy those all day long!  (Yes, I am one.)

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15 minutes ago, Charlie Harley, #14153 said:

But making jokes about engineers and our stereotypic quirks?  I enjoy those all day long!  (Yes, I am one.)

Don't get me started on engineers!:D

Retired journeyman machine repair machinist.

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An engineer, a cowboy and a serial killer walk into a bar...........

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1) Have you heard the one about the Farmer's Daughter and the Harley Davidson motorcycle?
Neither have I, and I've been asking for better than forty years!

 

2) I used to be a racist.

I had me a car with a big engine.

I"d racist that thang up the road just hard as she'd roll and I'd turn around and racist that car down the road just a-whistlin' and one fine day this-yere po-lees he come in behint me and lit up and all of a sudden bein' a racist got just awfully expensive!
I sold me that car with a big engine an' quit that racist stuff, my pocketbook wouldn't take it no more!

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I remember when Blazing Saddles came out. All of us, white and black, were cracking up quoting the lines from the movie to each other. Sad, that the society has changed for the worse where we no longer can laugh at ourselves.

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Engineer story, a customer bought a new grand piano from a local piano dealer. They assigned me the tuning of it. I called the lady and made an appointment and she said "Oh by the way my husband said the middle pedal needs tightening". I said okay. I got there and the middle pedal was fine, it's called a SOSTENUTO pedal and lots of piano players don't even know how to use it! I asked if her husband was a piano player and she said, "No he doesn't play but he's an ENGINEER". I was tempted to say "Yea and he's an idiot too but I held back and when I was done I said, Everything's fine, the piano is tuned and I "tightened the pedal". :lol: Never heard from them again, and they never called the store so the piano teacher who came to the house for lessons must have told Mr. Engineer that the pedal was fine.:P:lol:

 

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42 minutes ago, Mister Badly said:

Don't get me started on engineers!:D

Retired journeyman machine repair machinist.

My dad was a journeyman millwright and made sure that my engineering degree never went to my head when “listening to the men on the shop floor who really understand what’s happening”.  That advice has served me well. 

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To replace the low beam bulbs on a Subaru Outback the dealer wants $400 in labor to remove the front bumper to access the bulbs.

Fortunately YouTube had a way to do it at home going through the wheel wells.

 

Repairing the gate latch on my prized 94 F-150.  Got my SAE sockets ready to go. Bad idea.

All the little bolts to remove the access panel were 10mm.

 

I figure those were "Friday" jobs where they wanted to go home at noon. The 10mm bolts were close and the 3/16 were still in the stock room in another building.

 

I have a family member who is a retired engineer from Ford. Like Charley Harley, he takes a good ribbing, but usually has stories that top the ones you know.

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1 hour ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

In today's political climate EVERYTHING is racist!:angry:

I had a discussion with some Mex "Hispanic" ladies about seven years ago.  They were BSing and blocking the exercise equipment in the city owned senior center that I wanted to use and I suggested they might be more comfortable in the lounge area.  They immediately accused me of being a racist.

 

I calmly asked them "If you re going to accuse me of being  racist when I am not, what is my incentive for not being racist?  I mean if I'm going to be forced to wear the label, why shouldn't I actually become  racist?"

 

They wanted to know why I was being so hateful and I told them they had started this discussion and I thought I would be better off if I became a racist.  They wanted to know how I would do that.  "How about I come by your place tonight and fire bomb it like your people did in Orange County last week?  Or maybe I should drive through your neighborhood and shoot the place up?  Maybe I could paint nasty grafitti on the wall in the park down the street from where you live.

 

Or I could follow your women....YOU.... around in public and insult and intimidate you."

 

They reported me to the center's manager (A Nordic blonde woman) who went to the city council and had me banned for the facility.  I went to a council meeting and argued that I was NOT a racist and if I were being banned from the center I wouldn't pay my share of the property taxed to support it.

 

Six months later we took the opportunity to move out of California.

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It has changed but back in the 60's early 70's

 

An engineer designed a military jet

A college graduate flew the military jet

A high school graduate did the maintenance so the damn thing could fly

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1 hour ago, Charlie Harley, #14153 said:

I don’t know that I ever found ethnic-based jokes to be that funny.
 

Cutting people down because of their heritage?  I just don’t get it. 
 

But making jokes about engineers and our stereotypic quirks?  I enjoy those all day long!  (Yes, I am one.)

Some of the funniest Polish jokes I ever herd were told by Greg Boguski, my bunk mate in 'Nam, and a Polish- Swedish Reserve unit from Two Rivers-Manituwok (SP?), Wisconsin that was activated and joined us.  THEY told the jokes and no one was offended.

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I was born in 51.   Since I can remember as a child, one ethnic group has changed their 'name' about 5 times.

 

Any of their previous ethnic names is now considered racist and bigoted.

 

I stay upset because Southern Baptist don't get their fair share of jokes..... and I are one!   :lol:

 

..........Widder

 

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1 hour ago, DeaconKC said:

I remember when Blazing Saddles came out. All of us, white and black, were cracking up quoting the lines from the movie to each other. Sad, that the society has changed for the worse where we no longer can laugh at ourselves.

It’s twue, it’s twue.

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They don't mind the jokes.  They just change them to make fun of someone else.  The "blonde" joke craze of a few years back was a fine example.  Just a recycling of old ethnic jokes.

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12 minutes ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

It’s twue, it’s twue.


I used that as the starting line on one of the stages I wrote.

 

:)

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Some of the big name comedians in the '80s were raunchy as hell and pretty much everyone loved their routines. Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor were some of the most popular.

 

A buddy and his wife who are now in their 50s were watching Eddie Murphy's Delerious over Christmas. Neither of them is even remotely racist. That is just comedy they/I grew up on in the 80s. Their early 20s kids were home and heard some of it and were sorely offended. Neither could believe people thought that was funny. 

 

Times change.

 

Too bad people A. Don't have a sense of humor anymore and B. No one understands context anymore. The rush to being offended is more offensive than actually being offended or offensive.

 

:D

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Book I read many years ago (I believe it was one of The Destroyer series) there's this Polish guy. And he's rich and important and powerful, and one day he did something and his daughter said, "Papa that was so stupid. You are a living breathing Polish joke."

 

He asked what a Polish joke was. She was stunned - "You've never heard of Polish jokes?" So she tells him some, and he's rolling around on the floor laughing.

 

She says, "Papa I can't believe you're laughing at those jokes. They make fun of Polish people."

 

He says, "I've known those jokes all my life. Those are not Polish jokes. Those are Ukrainian jokes. Did you hear about the Ukrainian ..."

 

The joke's the same. Only the butt of it is changed. The British tell Irish jokes. Canadians tell Newfie jokes.

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We are starting to take our selves too damn seriously. A joke is a joke. If its funny laugh and people shouldn't be so quick to be offended!! One of the Mexican American officers I worked with used to tell us how hot it was by saying "Its hotter than a $2 pistol at a Mexican wedding" He's call me Gringo and I'd call hin Hey mex.  No one got offended.

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1 hour ago, Alpo said:

Book I read many years ago (I believe it was one of The Destroyer series) there's this Polish guy. And he's rich and important and powerful, and one day he did something and his daughter said, "Papa that was so stupid. You are a living breathing Polish joke."

 

He asked what a Polish joke was. She was stunned - "You've never heard of Polish jokes?" So she tells him some, and he's rolling around on the floor laughing.

 

She says, "Papa I can't believe you're laughing at those jokes. They make fun of Polish people."

 

He says, "I've known those jokes all my life. Those are not Polish jokes. Those are Ukrainian jokes. Did you hear about the Ukrainian ..."

 

The joke's the same. Only the butt of it is changed. The British tell Irish jokes. Canadians tell Newfie jokes.

Half of what used to be Poland is now Ukraine for maybe the third time.

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There was a CHiPs episode. The fat cop wanted to do stand up. Harlan, the little motorcycle mechanic, told him he had a friend that was a successful stand-up, and he would see if he could get some of that friend's material for him to use.

 

He goes to an open mic night and starts doing it, and they are all black jokes. The audience is getting very irate, and they brought out the hook. Afterwards he is giving Harlan all kinds of grief. "Why did you give me those ethnic jokes?"

 

Harlan says he does not understand it. His friend uses that material and everyone laughs.

 

At the end of the episode they are watching his friend do his return ROUTINE. His friend was Slappy White. For those that don't remember him, he was a black stand-up comic that did nothing except black jokes.

 

But the fat cop was white, and therefore could not do the exact same black jokes. That was racist.

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Anyone seen the horrible, overt racist dialogue between the two Texas Rangers in the movie Hell or High Water? Hilarious! :o

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Today it doesn't even have to be racist to be racist.  If it hurts someones feelings,  then it's racist.  

 

BS

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Back in the nineties I had a boss who loved Jeff Foxworthy's "Redneck" jokes.

 

Every morning, Tony, a retired Air Force officer, would walk in and share the latest of Foxworthy's offerings from the radio during his drive in.  We'd all look up and grin and chuckle as we enjoyed the joke as well as  the short break from the tedium of accounting.

 

Now, our CFO at the time was this really sweet lady named Sandra.  The "Boss."  And Sandra was never an early arrival; never in the office before 0900 at the latest - we referred to her schedule as "Pacific Sandra Time."  So, she had never heard any of Tony's presentations.

 

Well, one morning for some odd reason, Sandra was the first person in the office.  Without a second thought, when Tony walked in he smiled and gave her a "Good Morning" when he passed her door, then proceeded to deliver his standard morning humor contribution.  But before we could respond with laughs or chuckles, Sandra came boiling out of her office, arms windmilling, wearing an expression of shock and dismay...

 

"NO! NO! NOooo....!!!  Mustn't!  You can NOT tell jokes like that in the workplace!!"

 

Huh?

 

Bewildered, we all looked at each other, then I asked Sandra "Huh?  Howcum?"

 

"BECAUSE!  Because that might be a class of people!  And they might be a protected class, and they might be offended!"

 

By now we were all kinda rattled.

 

I looked at Sandra, and said "But Sandra... first off, 'Redneck's' aren't a protected class.  And second, if there were any rednecks about, they'd be proud of the jokes!"

 

"It doesn't matter.  No more 'Redneck' jokes!" she scolded, then marched back to her office and closed her door.

 

We all looked at each other, everyone reflecting minor shock, then Tony shrugged and said "That's okay.  We'll just use a code word for 'Redneck.'  From now on, we'll just call 'em 'Bluegills!'  Now - if you celebrated your anniversary with chili dogs and slurpees, ya just might be a 'Bluegill!'"  :rolleyes:

 

 

 

 

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