#548 - In which Jamie's mouth does something.

[snowyowl]

Q: How many Superman movie fans does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Five. One to screw it in, and four to complain that the old one was better.

(Again, replace as necessary to keep up with current pop culture. When I first heard it, it was about James Bond movies.)

[Arcblade]

"These days, who the hell is racist against Polish or Irish people?"

Sorry Tailsteak, it's not no one... British people. British people look at Polish people like US people look at Mexicans. I have that directly from a conscientious and equality-minded Englishman. It's the same gripe: "They're stealing jobs from us and our neighbors, don't speak the language well/at all," etc. Racism doesn't go away, it just shifts targets, I guess. I would personally just be happy if we could get along and not care so much about nationality and skin color... but it's never that simple, I guess.

[Raptorian]

Dear God, Jamie just has no brain/mouth barrier, does he?

[Horizon]

If he does, it's one made of cardboard and a bit of chicken wire.

[Kes]

We're probably doing the Latinos next. Their technological and cultural distinctiveness will be added to our own. Lookin' forward to it, honestly.

Coincidentally, I was pointed to an article last night on this very subject! http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/22/upsho ... white.html

[GauntletWizard]

Humans inherently need an "other"; Were it not for other races, it'd be based on political views, or fashion styles, or haircuts, or hair/eye color. It already is, often enough. The only real cure for racism is constantly interacting with people and broadening horizons such that no one group can stick in that 'other' place.

[AndrewB]

"These days, who the hell is racist against Polish or Irish people?"

Sorry Tailsteak, it's not no one... British people. British people look at Polish people like US people look at Mexicans. I have that directly from a conscientious and equality-minded Englishman. It's the same gripe: "They're stealing jobs from us and our neighbors, don't speak the language well/at all," etc. Racism doesn't go away, it just shifts targets, I guess. I would personally just be happy if we could get along and not care so much about nationality and skin color... but it's never that simple, I guess.

Some do, maybe... but then, seeing as no-one in Britain was making Polish jokes 50 years ago, it's pretty clear that the comment was referring to Americans.

[Steve the Pocket]

On the subject of "Polack jokes", I've noticed that they seem to be floating in a sort of nebulous realm where you could slot in pretty much any group that's still treated as "fair game" and they would still work. Which is why a lot of them are still around; they're just called "blonde jokes" now. The punchline is almost never "haw haw, ________s sure are dumb amirite?" but instead involves some absurd scenario that requires one participant to be already established as unintelligent. In theory you could just replace "Polack"/"blonde" with "stupid guy" (as I recall one of my school friends doing a long time ago) and it would still work, but it would lose a bit of its impact from the blunt obviousness.

It's kind of like how when a joke requires a character to be a pedophile, they make it about Michael Jackson (or Brian Peppers if you run in certain Internet circles). It's that extra layer of indirectness that makes it work better as a joke, for some reason, even if you know going into it what the more specific person or group is shorthand for. If I were a psychologist or a sociologist, this might make for a fascinating study.

[cleveresttitle]

Or if you're Gary Boone, Mrs. Snitzberry.

[Carnie]

Or if you're Gary Boone, Mrs. Snitzberry.

High five! I love that book.