Xref: utzoo news.misc:2266 soc.culture.jewish:8581
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cwjcc!gatech!hubcap!ncrcae!ncrlnk!uunet!mcvax!enea!dkuug!dde!ct
From: ct@dde.uucp (Claus Tondering)
Newsgroups: news.misc,soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: How Many (x) Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?
Keywords: sensitivity, sensationalism
Message-ID: <494@Aragorn.dde.uucp>
Date: 1 Dec 88 09:12:21 GMT
References: <358@sulaco.Sigma.COM>
Organization: Dansk Data Elektronik A/S, Herlev, Denmark
Lines: 42

allen@sulaco.Sigma.COM (Allen Gwinn) writes:

>Q: How Many (x) Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?
>A: They don't... they just sit in the dark and suffer.
>
>If you replace 'x' with your particular ethnic/political/racial/religious
>group (or anything else for that matter), does that simple riddle have some
>glint of truth to it?  Why does it offend some people in 'x' when there
>is a joke posted... not with the intent to harm or belittle, but with
>the sole attempt at giving someone a good laugh?

>The point to my whole article is when humor and the ability to laugh
>at one's self cease to exist, culture ceases to exist right along
>with it.

Your point is a good one, and I agree with 90% of what you say. However,
you have posted this article to soc.culture.jewish, and that gives a
particular angle to the problem.

I think that there is a profound difference between jokes about jews and
jokes about Beglians, Irish, Scotchmen etc. Consider, for example, a joke
about a Scotchman who is very fond of money. Now, replace the Scotchman
with a jew. Is the joke the same? No, it isn't. Why? The joke suddenly
becomes sick, because the accusation that jews are overly fond of money
has been used for centruries as a pretext for persecution of jews. Nobody
has ever persecuted the Scots for being greedy misers, so when you tell
a joke about Scotchmen, we can all maintain a detached attitude to the whole
thing; we know that there is neither truth nor malice in the joke. But
when the same joke is told about jews, it turns into a analogy to one
of the sick jokes about starving Biafrans that were so popular in the
early 1970's, for suddenly the joke has somthing tangible to hinge on.

Jewish history is one of persecution and suffering. Making jokes about
that is tasteless, even if the same jokes can be told about another
ethnic group with no ill effects.

For the record: I am not jewish.

-- 
Claus Tondering
Dansk Data Elektronik A/S, Herlev, Denmark
E-mail: ct@dde.dk    or    ...!uunet!mcvax!diku!dde!ct