Comedy Notes

I recently had an interesting thread of discussion with one of my Facebook friends. It started because I posted my status as "Happy Not American Day" on July 1st, which is tradiationally known as Canada Day. It's the red and white equivalent of the red/white/blue July 4th.

http://www.frogstar.com/content/july-1-happy-not-american-canada-day

I was called ignorant for making the joke that Canada Pride was based in the fact that we were not American. I disagreed that ignorant was the right word, but the comment started me thinking along different lines. I wasn't directly making American jokes - although I certainly have in the past, but I was kidding that the best thing about Canada - is that it isn't The United States. Technically, we are Americans, but we're banned from using that term by the arrogance of a smaller country geographically below us.

During this discussion, I started to think about the concept of racial humour in general. I'm old enough to remember the days of NEWFIE jokes and others. The times when telling jokes about other people was acceptable. For those not in my area, a NEWFIE is a person from Newfoundland. They were the but of all those silly jokes other areas may have used the Irish or the Polish for.

Today, we are supposed to be politically correct and tell lamer humour, or use generic stereotypes rather than geographical ones.

I protest.

Humour isn't predudicel. Belief is. Racial humour attacks an entire race by using stereotypes, but not all jokes do. I'l break it down.

If I start a joke with ; "a Newfie walks into a bar and orders a beer..." then that doesn't seem racial, even if the joke implies this particular Newfie is a moron.

If I start a joke with; "How many Newfies does it take to screw in a lightbulb" then the joke is racial, because is is referring to all Newfies... not just the stupid ones.

However, if I re-word the same joke; "How many morons from Newfoundland does it take to screw in a light bulb" it no longer attacks the entire province... just the stupid people.

If I tell a Polish joke, apparently I am hurting the Polish people by doing so. However, if I tell a joke about some very dumb person who lives in Poland, it's OK. The audience understands that not everyone in that country would think about blowing up a car by placing their lips on the exhaust pipe and exhaling.

Somehow, if I start a joke; "A moron finds his Army in his sleevey" it doesn't seem as funny as when I'm talking about the Polish military.

I think the difference in what may be considered ignorant or racial or prejudicial is whether the audience or the presenter believe the facts to be true. If I am an American telling jokes about Canada being a bunch of touque wearing beaver loving, hockey playing, strong beer drinking, Eskimos who live in Igloos - that could be a funny joke. But if I drive over the border in July wearing three sweaters excepting some quality skiing and seal clubbing... then I am ignorant. If I believe all Canadians wear lumberjack shirts and live in snow... then maybe the punchline wasn't funny at all, and the audience laughs at the teller of the joke instead. It's sad actually.

In the reverse, I certainly don't believe that it takes only one Newfie to change a light bulb but it might take 50 or 60 tries before the hammer doesn't smash one. If I did believe that, there would be no joke.

I am not sure how politically correctness came into the comedy world. I'm not sure who complained. Maybe the Polish community on the whole didn't appreciate being the butt of jokes. On the whole, a nation of Newfie jokes has lessened the reputation of the province. This implies that somewhere, somebody actually does believe Newfoundlanders change light bulbs with hammers.

I'm not saying stereotyping prejudice is correct. If you believe that the traits of a few represent the traits of the whole - in any case, be it race, sex, hobby, location or hair colour, then you are wrong. Not all blondes make up their minds with forehead lipstick. In fact, I would doubt even one has... but if you treat a blond differently because you believe this - that is prejudice. Society is right to attempt to stop it.

I believe attempts to get a smile or a laugh from people by telling a similar joke... it really isn't.

I'm interested to hear viewpoints. Is it fine to tell blonde jokes like this: A moron who happens to be blond just requested they remove the deer crossing signs from her street and put it up somewhere less busy, because too many deer were getting hit at this crossing.

What am I missing?