Re: metonymous factors (or not) in humour
- From: Blue Sow <janet.read@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:46:12 +0100
FCS wrote:
I'm sure most regular posters will have heard this particular one[excised]
before but I'm not sure it's ever been here as a topic. Here's a
paraphrase of it:
You might want to bear in mind that in its original form, this joke was what would now be considered unseemly.
It targets the alleged ignorance and drunken habits of a certain nationality of individuals, represented in the joke by the two men.
The 'joke' is that the two are 'too stupid' (because of their ethnicity) to realise that any bus can go anywhere or that the displayed numbers and destinations can be changed on any bus. Instead, they believe that they must steal the particular bus which services the route that passes near their homes.
The joke has existed at least since the fifties and seems, on the basis of the version you posted, to have been cleaned up in terms of no longer identifying a particular nationality of individual.
There is nothing in the joke which depends upon guided transport, trams, trolley buses etc., rather it is a simple 'racist' joke told by almost every child at secondary school.
For reference, the persons referred to would have been supposed to have been natives of the British Isles but not natives of the United Kingdom. That should narrow the field sufficiently for you.
--
Blue Sow
.
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