Whatever happened to ethnic jokes?

[Searchlight]

Only twenty or thirty years ago jokes about Irish people were pretty much accepted as a part of the UK comedy scene. Now they are considered to be about as funny as a drunk elderly family member who is trying to be cool. This phenomenom didnt just happen in the UK either. Swedes no longer joke about stupid Norwegeians. In France people no longer make Belgium jokes.

Any ideas? Did they just run out of humour or was it never funny in the first place?

[buttgammon]

They weren't funny. Simple as that.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

They never went away, you can find them without looking very hard.

The media in America doesn't seem to have a problem with ethnic jokes as it seems to find stereotyping foreigners convenient for comedy purposes.

Meanwhile in this country nary a football match or news story involving the Swiss goes by without without some reference to them being 'neutral'. And every story involving the french must without fail contain a french phrase, for reasons unknown to the outside world.

[Eight Taiwanese Teenagers]

What does the average Indian living in Britain weigh?

No, not sweets, you ignorant pig... Morbidly obese Brits, before prescribing a course of statins and beta-blockers.

[buttgammon]

Meanwhile in this country nary a football match or news story involving the Swiss goes by without without some reference to them being 'neutral'.

"So, shouldn't they only be refereeing? After all, they're not really being neutral when they play football but the officials, on the other hand, have to be neutral."

[boxofslice]

You don't hear them on TV/Radio anymore because it's considered un-PC to make a joke about any specific race but as for countries you can tune into HIGNFY any week for instance and hear a joke about the Germans or the French.
If you do want to hear jokes about a specific race just go down your local pub, there still there in abundance.

[ThickAndCreamy]

I have never found them funny, however jokes about other countries can be. Jokes that revolve around asians and blacks etc. just simply end up seeming crap or too easy to make. Also the majority of people who seem to tell them are usually ignorant idiots.

[CaledonianGonzo]

I mentioned this in the 'Homophobia' thread, but S. Lee's new play 'Johnson and Boswell - Late But Live' consists almost entirely of badinage at the expense of the Scots.  Some of it is the original Dr J. quoted verbatim, some of it is updated witticisms in the same style, but its still unquestionably a group of English comedians* taking the merciless piss out of the Scots.  And bloody funny it is too.  Highly recommended, whichever side of the border you happen to call home.

*Yeah, I know S. Lee is ~50% Scots.

[Danger Man]

[buttgammon]

See what I mean about them not being funny.

[Pylon Man]

Jokes about other countries or ethnicities needn't be hateful but the main reason they're often unfunny is because they're just so easy to do. And it doesn't matter who the lazy joke is from, often a comedian from an ethnic minority will have a significant proportion of their set consisitng of jokes about their country/ethnicity, which is worse because not only are the jokes oftenly crap but it seems expected almost that they have to do them. But sometimes you can get very good "offensive" jokes about other ethnicities/countries, from the likes of Sadowitz.

[Hank_Kingsley]

Who's holding the power, that's the important thing isn't it? If some cracker be cracking wise about poor minorities it's not really very funny. It's lazy and a way of exerting power over people.

Ethnic jokes are funnier when they're being told by people from within the culture, besides no joke about Jews by non-Jews has ever been as funny as the jokes Jews tell about themselves.

[Pylon Man]

Yes, but I still laughed at Bernard Manning's joke "I once knew an unorthodox Jew. He was a Nazi." Although that's one of the very few Manning jokes I've laughed at and I've heard it said that it's a rip-off of a Woody Allen joke. But when I heard it, I didn't know that. Even though some jokes about minorities clearly are lazy and racist, I don't think that one is.

And you say that about jokes told by the minority themselves, but it's annoying how sometimes you get someone from an ethnic minority and almost their entire comedy routine is about them being from that minority. It just seems like society forces them to only be that.

[El Unicornio, mang]

As much as I like Family Guy, the constant stereotype of us being hideous, bumbling, over-polite idiots with bad teeth is quite annoying. There's enough Americans who think that's true as it is...

[NoSleep]

As much as I like Family Guy, the constant stereotype of us being hideous, bumbling, over-polite idiots with bad teeth is quite annoying. There's enough Americans who think that's true as it is...

Like the Simpsons didn't try that one on beforehand.

[Caroline]

As much as I like Family Guy, the constant stereotype of us being hideous, bumbling, over-polite idiots with bad teeth is quite annoying. There's enough Americans who think that's true as it is...

Yeah, even in something as sophisticated as The West Wing, the first English character encountered is a boozy aristocrat who talk like Austin Powers, knows the Queen and loves cups of tea and cricket.

[its not cool to be weird]

As much as I like Family Guy, the constant stereotype of us being hideous, bumbling, over-polite idiots with bad teeth is quite annoying. There's enough Americans who think that's true as it is...

I don't like Family Guy, but in its defence, very few people who are the subject of an amusing stereotype find it funny, because they usually don't recognise the depiction. Thing is, FG is an American show, and that makes American's laugh, so fair enough. What about that episode of Blackadder, Nob and Nobility. I doubt there's many Frenchies who'd get why that's funny.

Jokes have to be funny that's the nub, and if they seem based in some genuine prejudice that tends to make them less funny, obviously. A lot of stand-up is still based primarily in lazy German jokes, and any Germans in the audience of a British comedy act ought to just keep quiet or in my experience it can get quite merciless and actually rather nasty.

Of course CG makes a good point about his Scottish jokes. If a person who is from the group that is the target of the humour, whoever is making the jokes, recognises the observations therein and finds it funny, so much the better. Father Ted is a big dig a the Irish in the same way as say, I'm Alan Partridge is a comment on the English, both with their casts of grotesques and depictions of mundane drab life. They are a kind of ethnic comedy that will always stay fresh as it is so well observed, and above all, funny.

[Bogey]

Yeah, even in something as sophisticated as The West Wing, the first English character encountered is a boozy aristocrat who talk like Austin Powers, knows the Queen and loves cups of tea and cricket.

Ah, but he's great though, isn't he? "Hello Gerald!"

At least he's not played by an American. I think they get let off that one.

[alan nagsworth]

What does the average Indian living in Britain weigh?

No, not sweets, you ignorant pig... Morbidly obese Brits, before prescribing a course of statins and beta-blockers.

Can't believe no one's commended you for this yet, absolutely brilliant sir.

[El Unicornio, mang]

"Have you heard of the latest deodorant being used in the ghetto? It's called 'ASK'" is a good one

[Pseudopath]

"Have you heard of the latest deodorant being used in the ghetto? It's called 'ASK'" is a good one

We'll have none of your American deodorant-based jokes around here, sir. We call it Lynx, as well you should know.

[El Unicornio, mang]

We'll have none of your American deodorant-based jokes around here, sir. We call it Lynx, as well you should know.

I saw AXE in England once! Granted, it was in a dodgy corner shop with the "not for individual resale" sticker half pulled off, but still...

[NoSleep]

Can't believe no one's commended you for this yet, absolutely brilliant sir.

How remiss of me. Very good, ETT

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

If there's an English male character in a US sitcom/drama, chances are they'll be called Nigel. Even Spinal Tap use it!

[CaledonianGonzo]

If there's an English male character in a US sitcom/drama, chances are they'll be called Nigel. Even Spinal Tap use it!

In fairness, about 90% of the blighters seem to be called that.  The poster above you, for one..

[Suttonpubcrawl]

Q: Why can't Stevie Wonder drive?
A: Because he flies his helicopter everywhere instead.

[Pylon Man]

That reminds me of a good "black" joke. Something about Stevie Wonder being blind and then he says "Well at least I'm not black!"

[Analrapist]

Q: Why can't David Blunkett fly a helicopter?
A: Because he's white.

[Artemis]

Ethnic jokes are still there, although you have to look under the thin veil of 'irony' to see them now a lot of the time. I was watching The Daily Show last night and they had quite a cringe-inducing segment on the Ukraine and Romania which was essentially "haha, they're such under-developed nations, not like us! U-S-A! U-S-A!" which felt a bit bleak.

[Suttonpubcrawl]

Q: What do you call a black man who doesn't work as a helicopter pilot?
A: Unemployed.