The Nilsens present: Ethnic Humor

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Ethnic Humor
by Don L. F. Nilsen and
Alleen Pace Nilsen

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3. Ethnic Stereotypes:
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4. DAVE CHAPELLE: “White People”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uvg-ug9CvE
DAVE CHAPELLE: “Black and White People’s Food”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB8AozV1TD0&faeture=related
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Humor is in all Cultures
• Mahadev Apte observes, “not only
does humor occur in all human
cultures, it also pervades all aspects of
human behavior, thinking, and
sociocultural reality; it occurs in an
infinite variety of forms and uses varied
modalities.”

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Anthropology vs. Folkore
• Elliott Oring says, “Anthropology focuses on the
concept of culture whereas folklore emphasizes the
notion of tradition.”
• “Folklorists would confront humor because a
number of the traditions they studied—tales, songs,
proverbs—were humorous.”
• “Indeed, jokes and other forms of humorous
expression would come to be recognized as the
preeminent forms of folkloric expression in
contemporary urban society.”

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Ethnic Joke Targets
JOKER:
America
Australia
Canada
Brazil
Colombia
Denmark
Egypt
England
Finland
France
Guatemala
Germany
Greece
India
TARGET:
Poles
Tasmanians
Newfies
Portuguese
Pastusos
Aarhusians
Sa’idis
Irishmen
Karelians
Belgians
Guitecos
Ostfrieslanders
Pontians
Sikhs
JOKER:
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Pakistan
Russia
Scotland
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Turkey
Wales
TARGET:
Turks
Kurds
Kerrymen
Yucatecos
Belgians
Maoris
Sikhs
Ukrainians
Irishmen
Afrikaners
Gallegos
Finns
Laz
Irishmen

8. ETHNIC SLURS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F67JhKT5bxU
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Ethnic Joke Targets
• Christie Davies says that those in the second
column live on the geographical, economic, cultural
or linguistic periphery of the peoples in the first
column.
• The marginalized groups learn about the mainstream
groups, but the mainstream groups remain ignorant
of the marginalized groups.
• The joke tellers identify with the target groups and
see them as comically stupid versions of
themselves.

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• Christie Davies’ findings are consistent
with A. R. Radcliffe-Brown’s findings:
• The best joking relationship between
two groups is when the groups exhibit
“both attachment and separation, both
social conjunction and social
disjunction.”

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ETHNIC HUMOR AS SWORD OR SHIELD
• Depending on its context, humor can
be offensive (aimed at ridicule of an
ethnic group),
• Or it can be defensive (aimed at
protecting a group from ridicule),
• Or it can be both at the same time.

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ETHNIC STEREOTYPES
• HEAVEN is the place where the cooks are
French, the police are English, the
mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian,
and everything is organized by the Swiss.
• HELL is where the cooks are English, the
police are German, the mechanics are
French, the lovers are Swiss, and everything
is organized by the Italians.

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• Many jokes contain ethnic stereotypes.
• Christie Davies says, “To become
angry about such jokes and to seek to
censor them because they impinge on
sensitive issues is about as sensible as
smashing a thermometer because it
reveals how hot it is.”

14. HAROLD AND KUMAR ESCAPE FROMGUANTANAMO BAY:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKuUMY6URXQ
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ETHNIC VS. POLITICAL JOKES
• Alan Dundes says that Americans have more
ethnic than political jokes because America has
a free press where politicians and politics are
lambasted on a daily basis.
• Americans therefore have little need for oral
political jokes.
• But because people are often uncomfortable
discussing such subjects as sexuality or racism,
these tend to become the hidden subjects of
joke cycles.

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INSIDERS VS. OUTSIDERS
• Why aren’t Jews concerned about the
abortion controversy?
• Because they don’t consider a fetus
viable until after it graduates from
medical school.

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• If the tellers or listeners of this joke are
gentiles, it may be anti-semitic,
criticizing Jews as being overly
ambitious and arrogant.
• But if the tellers or listeners are Jews, it
may be an expression of Jewish pride
and the extraordinarily high standards
of child rearing.

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• When a group member tells an ethnic or
religious joke, it opens the door for inner-
group communication and invites group
members to examine their attitudes and
behavior.
• But if outsiders tell the same joke, the effect
is the opposite, because the outsider focuses
on the group’s most obvious characteristics
and implies that these characteristics belong
to everyone in the group.
• Because outsiders have little power to bring
about internal change, the effect is to
stereotype the group, and this lessens the
chances for change.

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Jokes
• Most good joke-tellers do not memorize jokes.
• They simply remember the punch-line, the theme of
the joke and possibly a particularly good jab line or
two.
• And then they reinvent the story each time it is told.

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JOKE TARGETS
• Christie Davies says that Americans consider Poles, Italians,
and Portuguese stupid, and Jews, Scots, New Englanders and
Iowans as canny.
• Canadians consider Newfies as stupid and Jews, Scots and
Nova Scotians as canny.
• Mexicans consider people from Yucatan as stupid and people
from Monterey as canny.
• Nigerians consider Hausas as stupid and the Ibos as canny.
• The English, Welsh and French consider the Irish, Belgians and
Swiss as stupid, and the Scots and Jews as canny.

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Margaret Mead
• Derek Freeman writes that anthropologists
need to know the cultures they are studying.
• “Margaret Mead did not speak Samoan and in
large measure became a victim of the
Samoan sense of humor—what fun it must
have been for lively young Samoans to
deceive this tiny, pink, foolish American
woman who was asking them silly
questions.”

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• The Samoans were playing a practical
joke on Margaret Mead.
• For example, she was deceived into
thinking there was no rape in Samoa
(which had a far higher incidence of that
crime than most other societies).

23. STUFF WHITE PEOPLE LIKE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3FZhobYTXI%feature-related
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M.I.C.H.
• Robert Priest, a psychologist at West Point Military Academy,
has proposed what he calls the MICH Theory of Moderate
Intergroup Conflict Humor.
• He says that people will not use humor with each other unless
there is some kind of tension or strong feeling.
• However, when feelings go beyond the moderate level then
humor exacerbates, rather than helps a negative situation.
• Therefore, the most amusing jokes are usually found in the
middle ranges, because this is where the hostility does not
overpower the humor.

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LARRY MINTZ’S STAGES OF ETHNIC HUMOR
1. Critical Humor Targeting the Ethnic Group (e.g. Harpo Marx)
2. Self-Deprecatory Humor about the Ethnic Group (e.g. Chico
Marx)
3. Realistic Humor Accepting Integration (e.g. Groucho Marx)
4. Critical Humor Targeting Mainstream Culture (e.g. Woody
Allen, Lenny Bruce, Mel Brooks)

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RADIO ETHNICITY
• During the “golden age” of radio, ethnic voices were
fun to hear.
• One radio show which ran during the 1940s was
named “Allen’s Alley,” and featured Fred Allen.
• There was a loudmouth Irishman named Ajax
Cassidy, a farmer named Titus Moody, and a
pompous Southerner named Senator Beauregard
Claghorn, whose signature line was “that’s a joke,
son!”

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• Kenny Delmar modeled the Claghorn
character after a Texas rancher who
had given Delmar a ride in his Model-T
ford.
• Even today there is a Warner Brothers’
cartoon character by the name of
Foghorn Leghorn who is modeled after
Beauregard Claghorn.

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TARGETS OF ETHNIC HUMOR
• Christie Davies says that the most common
targets of ethnic humor, “live on the
geographical, economic, or linguistic edge of
the society or culture where the jokes are
told, live in small communities, or rural areas
on the periphery of a nation, are immigrants
concentrated in blue-collar occupations.
There is no evidence that the targets are
stupid, but they occupy stupid locations.”

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CHINESE ETHNICITY
• Chinese writer Frank Chin has criticized
Maxine Hong Kingston for Woman Warrior,
Amy Tan for The Joy Luck Club, and David
Henry Hwang for his plays F.O.B., and M.
Butterfly.
• He accuses these writers of “boldly faking”
Chinese fairy tales and childhood literature.

30. JO KOY: “Chinese People”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw_3O4f5smo
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• Kingston responded, “Sociologists have criticized
me for not knowing myths and for distorting them.”
• She explains that in China, pirates illegally translate
her books for publication in Taiwan and China.
• These pirates “correct” her myths, and revise them
to make them conform to traditional Chinese
versions.
• “They don’t understand that myths have to change,
be useful or be forgotten.”
• “Like the people who carry them across oceans, the
myths become American.”

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CONCLUSION
• We must keep some basic principles in mind
as we look at ethnic humor:
• Someone else’s ethnic identification does
not seem as important as does our own.
• The appreciation of ethnic humor correlates
with how much we know about, and identify
with, the joke target.

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• Humor is a tool that can be used either
for building up or tearing down
relationships.
• A joke told by a member of the targeted
group is quite different from the same
joke when it is told by an outsider.

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• We must also be aware that ethnic
humor now has an edge it didn’t used
to have.
• Toward the end of his career, Groucho
Marx began to worry about some of the
most talented comedians he knew who
would soon be out of work because
dialect humor was falling out of
fashion.

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• The inscrutable Charlie Chan’s pidgin English
disappeared from the airwaves and so did
Tonto’s manly grunting.
• Children no longer read El Gordo comic strips,
and both Beulah and Amos ‘n’ Andy
disappeared.
• In 1970, Bill Dana gave up telling jokes through
the voice of his popular Jose Jimenez character,
and Frito-Lay discontinued its Frito Bandito
commercials.

36. MARGARET CHO TALKS ABOUT RACE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc6mLwOa2Ig
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