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From: jbf@ccieng5.UUCP (Jens Bernhard Fiederer)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Wrong again
Message-ID: <302@ccieng5.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 27-Mar-84 21:14:54 EST
Article-I.D.: ccieng5.302
Posted: Tue Mar 27 21:14:54 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 28-Mar-84 00:37:41 EST
References: <6195@decwrl.UUCP>, <7223@watmath.UUCP>
Organization: Computer Consoles Inc., Rochester, NY
Lines: 32

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.