chickenfeet

Don't feel too bad about it. It's always open season on white English males. And we don't even have the sheep for comfort.

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dyddgu.livejournal.com

knirirr keeps telling me. I'd be quite happy to make jokes about everyone, it annoys me that some are "out of bounds" because of whatever the cultural climate of the day happens to be. Calling someone "Paki" in the street here is likely to bring the police down on you, but Taffy? Nah.

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knirirr.livejournal.com

One expects certain things to be "out of bounds" depending on the circumstances one is in. It's when cultural prejudice becomes enforceable by law that we have a problem.

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badasstronaut.livejournal.com

I don't understand this thing English people have about thinking it's funny how everyone else has sheep. Now I live in England I can hardly help noticing there are plenty of sheep in England. Not only that, but they seem incredibly well-groomed compared to the ones I grew up with.

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they seem incredibly well-groomed compared to the ones I grew up with.

less dishevelled?

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badasstronaut.livejournal.com

Less muddy and more cared for.

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rhythmaning.livejournal.com

It isn't having sheep that is funny. It is the innuendo associated with sheep that is.

In Scotland, sheep jokes are directed at people in the north east - indeed, Aberdeen football club are known as the "sheepshaggers".

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blonde222.livejournal.com

Why is "Democrats" not a category?

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Good point. I missed out Villa supporters too.

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jez-e-bel.livejournal.com

you know... I find it very offensive that you would include sheep on that list... everyone else is fine but sheep always seem to have such a baaad time of it...

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says ewe!

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helianthas.livejournal.com

ha!

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knirirr.livejournal.com

The proper answer is that all should be permitted. However, as that's probably not the answer you were after I have instead interpreted the question as "which prejudice would someone be less likely to be thumped for if they expressed it in your presence"?

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I was actually thinking more along the lines of which categories people are, in some sense, 'comfortable' with and which not. I'm not a fan of legislating humour.

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knirirr.livejournal.com

Ah, I see. It wasn't clear that you were asking what people were personally comfortable with, sorry. My answer is still fairly accurate, though.

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Lawyers are actually trailing investment bankers and sheep here. Odd.

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There's nothing odd about lawyers trailing sheep. They do it all the time.

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*iz ded from laughing*

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I've worked for investment bankers and lawyers. They are worthy of being made fun of. Trust me.

Other than those two types, sheep (the wooly kind and the metaphorical kind) are ready-made joke candidates.

Note: It is NOT ok to joke about Québecois and French people! *stamps foot* & *giggles*

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...might I point out that I'm a Quebecois lawyer, so

chickenfeet2003's line about me trailing sheep is totally reprehensible and out of line.

Now on the other hand, if he'd pointed out my Scottish ancestry and come out with the old "because sheep can hear a zipper a mile off" kilt joke, that would have been hilarious?

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*snortle* I'm friending you and the basis of this comment and your bio. Feel free to reciprocate or throw me away like a pint of week-old bait;-p

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Likewise in all respects, although I should point out that my blog these days should probably be re-titled "Getting In Touch With My Inner Redneck Zombie Hunter" and features much waving of firearms by family and close friends and graphic field-to-table imagery of the things I shoot on Saturday mornings.

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graphic field-to-table imagery of the things I shoot on Saturday mornings.

Without right of appeal!

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One wonders what effect having to eat the kill would have on death penalty proponents...

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I foresee a good deal more support for hanging. Probably for a couple of weeks.

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Good point; hopefully aging the carcass would undo some of the damage done to the meat by a diet of jail food. The electric chair would probably just char the meat, and I don't even want to think about the health hazards posed to diners by the gas chamber or lethal injection...

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Oh, and BTW, the gmail ad line on the notification re this comment?

"Electric Chair - electric.chair.AlltheBrands.com - Electric Chair Savings! Electric Chair shoppers Start Here."

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Consider me forewarned and forearmed;)

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...to hide the gory bits with lots of intestines behind lj-cuts.

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*hehehe* Many thanks for that!

Icon = Me hiding from the 'Gorey' bits;)

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aparecida.livejournal.com

I don't think any of them should be banned or "violate anyone's rights," inherently, but I find them all troublesome enough that I wouldn't use them. Either that or I have no knowledge of the stereotype (what are Yankee fans supposed to be like? No clue).

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what are Yankee fans supposed to be like?

The stereotype is boorish and rude. I don't know (or care) enough about rounders to know if this is fair.

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rparvaaz.livejournal.com

I ticked okay to stereotypes I'd understand. And I never make fun of any religion but my own - 'tis just too volatile a subject, and I am not fond of explaining that 'a joke is a joke'.

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sher-khan.livejournal.com

I voted for all except "People of Colour"
You see I didn't know if you were referring to non-white Southern US citizens, non-goths, over-opulent drag queens, movie fans who refuse to watch black & whites, or flamboyant artists (or is that artistes?) who like to use phrases like "Magenta-Fuscia-Plaid IS the NEW Black!"

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It's a fair question. I have yet to meet the person who totally absorbed EM radiation (but if she did, she'd be hot!)

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ironed_orchid

I think it depends on whether you belong to the group. It's OK to make jokes about groups to which one belongs or with which one is associated. This is why I am allowed to joke about Australians and sheep.

The English cricket team and investment bankers are fair game for anyone.

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I didn't realise you were a sheep.

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ironed_orchid

Baaaaaa

Well, I was born in NZ, what did you expect?

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lemur-man.livejournal.com

Animals and professions. That's about it, if we're going to be fair about the things people can't change about themselves (I guess athletes and supporters of various teams then as well). It'd be hypocritical of me to say that I don't occasionally trade in stereotype-based humour about some of those listed, however.

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a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com

Well, call me a knee-jerk, PC liberal, but I have problems with purely racial ones, but not necessarily national ones. I think it's because I know that people have been making jokes based on otherness for ages (there's a great set of 'national' stereotypes in Jacques de Vitry on students in Paris, and that's 13th c.) -- but I think that there's an argument to be made that 'other' in these cases doesn't equal 'less' (as opposed to, for example, Jews, who are both other and less). Most of the jokes having to do with so-called national characteristics are easily transferable, and one hears the same tropes even within those nations -- So a french person might tell a German joke, but a person from Hanover might tell the same joke about someone from Bavaria (or a Californian about someone from the south).

In the case of most racial jokes (People of colour, Chinese, er ... African), the joke is almost always imbued with social Darwinist theories of backwardness and inferiority. Other is lesser, primitive, and not transferable.

Men and Women are too broad as categories. Me? I like dumb blond jokes, but then, I'm blonde and generally considered not to be dumb ...

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That's largely my position. I'd be really careful about and would almost always avoid telling a joke that stereotyped a group that was routinely negatively stereotyped in the culture; blacks, Pakistanis, homosexuals, and frankly, at least for now, Muslims. I don't really have a problem with jokes that stereotype non-persecuted groups; South Dakotans, New Yorkers, Scots, Christians etc.

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f4f3.livejournal.com

Any of them - as long as it's a good joke.

Like the Irishman who went for a job as a builder, and the English foreman asked him if he knew the difference between a joist and a girder.

He answered, "That's easy - Joyce wrote Ulysses, and Goethe wrote Fauste."

Hmm, that loses a bit without the accents....

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helianthas.livejournal.com

I assumed the Jersey Girl thing was directed to peeps like me (we RULE!), but then I wondered -- do people make as much fun of English Jersey girls as they do American NEW Jersey girls? If so, what are those stereotypes?

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