Ethnic joke
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Ethnic jokes are jokes that exploit ethnic stereotypes. They are often racist and frequently considered offensive.
For example, the British tell jokes starting "An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman..." which exploit the supposed parsimony of the Scot, stupidity of the Irish, or some combination. It is sometimes held that such stereotypes must contain a grain of truth; research suggests that this is not the case.[1]
Ethnic jokes are often aimed at minorities within countries, or peoples from neighboring countries. A common ethnic joke format is the "stupid person" joke, where the stock character who is the butt of the joke belongs to an ethnic group singled out for abuse. Such jokes are often interchangeable, with the stigmatized "stupid" group varying from country to country, and region to region. For example, the English tell such jokes about the Irish, Brazilians tell them about the Portuguese, and so on. In other ethnic jokes, the targeted ethnic group is one that has historically been associated with the privileged ruling class, as in the "van der Merwe" jokes of South Africa, which make fun of Afrikaners (van der Merwe being a stereotypical Dutch name).
Ethnic jokes come and go with social change, particularly with waves of immigration from one country to another; for example, Polish jokes, once common in the United States during widespread Polish immigration, are now little used[citation needed], as Polish and other Eastern European immigrants have long since been absorbed into the large community. Similarly, Irish jokes have become far less common in the United Kingdom as the social status of Irish people has risen with increased wealth in Ireland, the consequent reduction in Irish itinerant labor, and the absorption of Irish people into the community; Irish people in England are now as likely to be accountants or lawyers as building laborers.
Members of particular ethnic groups may often tell self-deprecating jokes about their own group; for example, Jewish jokes are popular among Jews[citation needed], and British humor is often self-deprecating[citation needed]. In general, members of groups telling jokes "against" their own group is regarded as more socially acceptable than members of other groups telling the same jokes.[citation needed] For example, the acts of many Black American comedians feature jokes that would be regarded as unforgivably racist if told by a non-Black comedian.
At their most offensive, ethnic jokes depict their targets as being inherently subhuman, criminal or depraved[citation needed]. Such jokes are usually explicitly, rather than implicitly, racist, often describing their subjects using ethnic slurs, and are generally regarded as hate speech.[citation needed]
People with different skin color are particularly singled out for offensive jokes, Black people being a particularly common target in many countries. In England, people of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi descent, who are a substantial minority group in that country, are the target of similar jokes. Jews are also a common target of ethnic jokes.
As public awareness of racism has increased, racial and ethnic jokes have become increasingly socially unacceptable in recent years, and have become socially taboo to tell in public in many countries.
A closely related topic is the telling of jokes about people with disabilities, such as jokes making fun of the mentally ill, which often mirrors that of racist jokes. The same can be said for jokes about gays.
In an effort to presereve ethnic humor while not targeting real ethnic groups, some people coined the term "Yougarian," from Yugoslavian and Hungarian. One such writer was Al Boliska, author of the joke book Wipeouts! Others, such as Isaac Asimov, would use Ruritania as the butt of ethnic jokes based on outright slurs.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- 2. Davies, Christie. Ethnic Humor Around the World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990.
- 3. Draitser, Emil. Taking Penguins to the Movies:: Ethnic Humor in Russia. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998. ISBN 0814323278.
[edit] External links
- Charles Jaret. Book review: The Mirth of Nations. American Journal of Sociology.
- Indian Ethnic Stand Up Comedy - Laughing at Ourselves
ja:エスニックジョーク
