Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!yale!bunker!hcap!hnews!681!853.1!StEpHeN.wHiTe From: StEpHeN.wHiTe@p1.f853.n681.z3.fidonet.org (StEpHeN wHiTe) Newsgroups: misc.handicap Subject: Humor and the Deaf Message-ID: <18584@bunker.isc-br.com> Date: 11 Apr 91 04:31:47 GMT Sender: wtm@bunker.isc-br.com Reply-To: StEpHeN.wHiTe@p1.f853.n681.z3.fidonet.org Organization: FidoNet node 3:681/853.1 Lines: 88 Approved: wtm@bunker.hcap.fidonet.org Index Number: 14725 [This is from the Silent Talk Conference] JW> Humor is a cultural experience. Humour is culturally independant. Culture merely provides a "database" of known things to ensure understanding of the joke. JW> Deaf kids are not humorless. I have seen other people refer to JW> them and Deaf adults as well as humorless. This shows either JW> complete lack of understanding of what humor is or a deep seated JW> disrespect for deaf people as capable intelligent people. In all JW> fairness, I must admit that people who make such statements mean JW> no harm. They are just uninformed. You seem to be missing an essential point here: _I_ am not uninformed. I just happen, by pure chance of course, to be profoundly deaf myself, and have been so from birth. Are you trying to say that I have a deep seated disrespect for myself as a capable and intelligent person? James - I think you're manipulating what you read, so you can go off into another spiel. You are showing disrespect to _me_ by using me as your soapbox. JW> A deaf motorist was in a hurry. He came to a railroad crossing. JW> The barriers came down. he stopped and waited but no train came JW> by.He waited some more and still no train came. He saw a main in JW> the control booth. The deaf motorist got out and went to the JW> booth. He wrote on a piece of paper and gave it to the main in JW> the booth. Thepaper said, "Please BUT." Doesn't mean anything to me. I don't know ASL - I know Auslan. (Incidentally, I happen to be related to the man who did the Auslan dictionary) How about a deaf joke that doesn't require any knowledge of a specific sign language? I'll tell it two ways - the way you told it, and the way that it can be understood. The way you told the joke: A man was going away on holiday to Italy. He was looking forwards to all the Italian cusine. His friends saw him off at the airport, waving farewell, adieu, and all that. Two months later, the friends went to the airport to welcome the man home. The way to tell the joke: A man was going away on holiday to Italy. He was looking forwards to all the Italian cusine. His friends saw him off at the airport, waving farewell, adieu, and all that. Two months later, the friends went to the airport to welcome the man home. JW> However, it would be a great wrong to label the hearing humorless JW> or their children humorless merely because they do not comprehend JW> Deaf jokes. Deaf people and our children should be accorded JW> withthe same respect. I based my observation that "deaf children at Strathmont seemed rather humourless" on the fact that I very rarely saw any of them smile or laugh. They did not make many jokes, and the jokes that they did make were of an extremely juvenile level. I'm absolutely positive that this is because of the repressive regime that the teachers laid over their students, and specifically pointed that out in my original message. I also said that deaf adults were an entirely different story altogether. I suggest that you read what I write, not what you want to read. -- Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!3!681!853.1!StEpHeN.wHiTe Internet: StEpHeN.wHiTe@p1.f853.n681.z3.fidonet.org