Actually, my vote now has always been to just leave the jokes off
anyway.  By the time they hit this list, I've already heard them 50 times,
and it's just not appropriate.  Insulting various political, religious,
ethnic groups is always going to be a problem in a group this size.  You
are either a bigot/racist or will be branded as one.  It's not worth it on
the part of the poster to take the chance, and it's not relevant to this
list (not that much on this list ever is :) ).  I'm as un-PC as they come,
but I've learned from working in a number of large corporations that you
have to watch it.

At 03:40 PM 8/22/2000, Emerson, Tom # El Monte wrote:
>This afternoon, Al posted a couple of jokes that were, well, certainly adult
>in nature, but (perhaps) juvenile (sophmorific?) in quality/content.  He has
>been soundly flamed (in private, it appears) and has chosen to reflect the
>resulting drivel back to the list for public exposure.
>
>As far as I'm concerned, I'm neither appalled nor exuberant over the posts,
>and I don't mean to defend nor persecute Al, but I thought it appropriate to
>at least smooth the ruffled feathers of a few here before things escalate
>beyond all measure of sanity.
>
>Basically, I'd like to say, "get a grip folks -- this is HUMOR, not REAL
>LIFE".  Unfortunately, unless I define what *I* believe "humor" to be, I
>risk further offending those I'm trying to soothe (this is from another
>thread on another list I belong to, where it has been pointed out that the
>English language is so easily twisted and/or perverted that what *I* believe
>a particular word to mean can be quite different than what others believe it
>to mean)
>
>So here is my observation on "what humor is": Humor is "someone else's
>pain".
>
>That's it in a nutshell -- before you hit 'reply' with more 'well, you're an
>A$$ too' posts, stop to think about the ramifications of that statement.
>What comedians make you laugh the hardest, and what jokes do they tell to
>make you laugh that hard?  How often do those jokes tell the tale of someone
>on the receiving end of physical or mental "pain"?  Most often, the jokes
>told are self reflective of the comedian's past, perhaps embellished along
>the way, but almost always cases where they themselves are the "butt" of the
>joke (or if not themselves, a close family member or "their best friend")
>
>Why do these jokes make you laugh?  The simplest explanation I can come up
>with is above -- it's "someone else's" pain, not your own, so hearing the
>joke makes you feel internally relieved because "the joke is not about me".
>If the joke hits "too close to home", well, then the joke is often viewed as
>"not funny", and perhaps even "not in good taste".
>
>[of course, there is another class of jokes altogether known as "puns", or
>"word plays", but what makes these jokes "funnier" is finding someone who
>"doesn't get it", and therefore making you feel "smarter" than someone else
>-- again, the joke derives it's pleasure from the fact that "someone else"
>feels "pain", in this case, the "pain" of not appearing as "intelligent" as
>yourself...]
>
>Now, as to the jokes Al posted originally?  Take a moment to look at them in
>a detached sort of way -- the "bible" jokes are all pretty much cases of
>obscure and (hopefully) no-longer-enforced interpretations of passages [some
>perhaps taken way out of context]  However, should those "passages" be
>enforced in today's society, almost all of them would "cause pain" to some
>third party -- selling someone's daughter into slavery, killing someone who
>performs useful duties on "the Sabbath", etc. [err, by that concept alone,
>priests & ministers would be criminals -- see how this "twisting" works?]
>
>Likewise, the "politico" jokes are cases where dubious judgment of the facts
>have been taken to the extreme, and for every republican joke, there is
>perhaps a corresponding democrat joke (or greenpiece joke, or
>independent-party joke, or libertarian joke, or...)  Again, however, you the
>reader of the joke "feel relieved" when the joke doesn't apply to you.  If,
>however, you DO believe one or more of the items, then the joke appears
>unfunny -- A particular example might be the one about one's children being
>virgins, which I suppose applies to ALL parents regardless of political
>persuasion.  When the day comes that you find your son or daughter has
>passed on to the next level of "growing up", there is a certain internal
>pain that "your baby isn't a baby anymore" [disclaimer: I don't have kids of
>my own, and at my age that's becoming part of my own internal pain, but I
>can certainly visualize how it would be for others...]
>
>So, with ALL THAT ABOVE in mind, let me say that if someone posts something
>that THEY feel is "humorous", yet you find them lacking in humor or taste,
>take a moment to evaluate why you don't feel it is funny.  If it is because
>of personal shame or if it brings back to mind a particularly painful
>memory, take heart in the fact that there is usually something equally
>appalling to the person who posted the "joke".  Likewise, if you're "rolling
>in the aisles" over some of the items presented, consider for a moment that
>what you are laughing at is "someone else's pain"...



Regards,

Shawn Gordon
President
theKompany.com
www.thekompany.com
949-713-3276