Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!novavax!twwells!bill
From: bill@twwells.uucp (T. William Wells)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Expansion of rec.humor.funny to other networks
Message-ID: <784@twwells.uucp>
Date: 16 Mar 89 04:43:12 GMT
References: <439@corpane.UUCP> <3100@ddsw1.MCS.COM> <9773@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <118@melba.oz> <3430@ficc.uu.net>
Reply-To: bill@twwells.UUCP (T. William Wells)
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In article <3430@ficc.uu.net> jeffd@ficc.uu.net (jeff daiell) writes:
: In article <118@melba.oz>, zvs@melba.bby.oz (Zev Sero) writes:
: > >
: > The point is that racist humour is NOT intended to insult anyone because of
: > anything.  It is intended to be funny.  Full stop.
:
:
: Bullfeathers, Zev -- do you actually believe that?  People make racist
: jokes to put down the victim group (ditto jokes about religious
: groups or one of the sexes) -- or as a defensive mechanism by
: a member of a victim group.  That's why people who like to
: make jokes - but dislike bigotry - don't make such jokes.

Bullsh*t, Jeff. Racism is a property of an individual.  Individuals
are racists. Jokes are not. If *I* tell a joke, ostensibly "racist",
it is because I find some factor in it amusing. It is not because I'm
a racist.

Let me put it this way. I am Jewish enough that Hitler would have sent
me to a concentration camp.  (My mother was born Jewish; I was raised
Catholic.) My wife *is* Jewish. I don't consider myself Jewish; I'm
an Objectivist and find all religion equally repugnant. (Yes, my wife
is also now an atheist.) So, let me tell you an old joke. It is to be
told with the appropriate Jewish accent, of course.

	This boy is given two shirts by his mother and goes to his
	room to try them on. He returns to the living room and says
	"Mom, how does it look?" The mother says "What's wrong, don't
	you like the other shirt?"

Why do I enjoy this? First, using the stereotype dramatically points
out the thing I find incongruous.  Without the Jewish accent to make
it clear which stereotype is being invoked it looses quite a bit of
its impact. Second, it pokes fun at a kind of stereotyped behavior
that deserves a little censure. Third, I laugh at it for the same
reason that we, later, laugh at all disasters that we manage to
survive and grow from (my childhood, in this case).

One finds this humorous only when one understands in some way the
catch-22 in this situation. The absurdity of the position of the boy,
that whatever he did was wrong, is essential to the humor. The
stereotype provides a shorthand for an entire collection of
characteristics; these enable us to quickly enough grasp what is going
on that we are struck by immediately by its humor.  Without the
stereotype, the joke, and its wider implications, would have to be
explained. It wouldn't be funny any more. Merely sad.

I find bigotry in all its forms *repulsive*, not to mention
irrational. And I hardly need race-based jokes to defend myself
against those who are anti-Jewish. Will you call me racist? Will you
call me defensive?  You'd better not. Or will you accept that your
own racism (against people who enjoy jokes that you find offensive) is
irrational and repudiate it?

---
Bill
{ uunet | novavax } !twwells!bill
(BTW, I'm going to be looking for a new job sometime in the next
few months.  If you know of a good one, do send me e-mail.)