Although less commonly held than in the past , there is still in Canada a rather bigoted stereotype about people from the province of Newfoundland. Specifically, the prototypical “Newfie” is held to be ignorant, stupid, and lazy. “Newfie” jokes are common but, in these more PC times, seemingly less so than they used to be. That being said, there is no shortage of Newfie joke sites (with, FWIW, 180,000 hits on a Yahoo search).
I’m curious to learn if there is an analogy to the ‘Newfie’ stereotype, and ‘Newfie’ jokes, in your country.
Thanks!
(Mods: I think this is a GQ topic but, of course, please move as you see fit.)
Many Texans look down their noses at any non-Texan. In response, many people from the states bordering Texas look down their noses at Texans as “rednecks with money”.
New Yorkers are often stereotyped as being pushy and rude.
New Yorkers and Californians sometimes refer to the midwest as “flyover country”.
Everytime I’ve visited Canada I’ve noticed that jokes about people from the Prairies (Saskatchewan seems to be the default) are exactly similar to U.S. jokes about people from the Midwest – they’re friendly but unsophisticated and slow on the uptake.
My father told me that when he lived in Hungary, the rural Magyar dialect he learned instantly branded him as a bumpkin when he visited Budapest – even more than his heavy American accent. I think the urban vs. rural jokes are probably universal.
After spending a year in Japan, my daughter tells me that the Osaka dialect instantly brands someone as a dumb, working-class boor – if not actually a member of the Japanese Mafia.
NZ gets a lot of flak in a good-natured, friendly banter kind of way- I wouldn’t say there’s any malice to the flak Tassie gets, but there’s certainly a meme that people from Tasmania (and Western Australia, if you’re on the Eastern Seaboard) really are, at the very least, a bit odd.
In Germany every region (including one’s own) is a stereotype - putting down each other’s tribe is even a favourite topic for reciprocal jocular insults among work colleagues because it’s safe i.e. understood as not meant personally.
To my Swabian colleagues I (a Hamburger by birth) am still a fishhead while to Hamburgers Swabians are industrious but tightfisted.
Generally the people from other non-city states are funny-talking hicks (the indigenous Berliners are funny-talking urban hicks to other Germans).
West Germans are greedy, overbearing and the reason for a sizable minority of East Germans to wish the wall back
East Germans are lazy, don’t appreciate democracy and the reason for a sizable minority of West Germans to wish the wall back
Bavarian and Saxon dialects are humoristic clichés.
Sauerlanders are considered dour by other Germans.
Siegerlanders are considered dour by Sauerlanders.
Rhinelanders are pathologically convival.
East Frisians are the butt of ‘stupid’ jokes since the early 1970s
The village of Ganslosen was the butt of ‘stupid’ jokes until they got sick of it in 1849 and renamed themselves to Auendorf.
An example of battling stereotypes, by Otto Waalkes: An East Frisan and a Bavarian team had a football match.
After a few minutes, a passing train whistled.
The East Frisians thought the match was ended, and went home.
Thirty minutes later, the Bavarians scored their first goal.
Here in Southern California, in Orange County in particular, we refer to folks who live in Riverside and San Bernardino counties as 909ers (“nine-oh-niners”). Especially if the person referenced is wearing a flat billed ball cap, drives a lifted 4x4 truck, and wears lots of tattoos. See the definition for bro.
909 was the Inland Empire’s area code until the 949 area code was introduced. My friends who live in the new 949 area code are quick to point out they are not in the 909, but they’re not fooling anyone!
Seeing your location (northeast Ohio), it reminded me that when I lived in east suburbann Cleveland, the suffix “tucky” (as in “Kentucky”) was often derogatorily tacked onto in place names (e.g. Ashtabutucky, Painesvilltucky, etc.).
In Perú the jokes are about people from Arequipa Why doesn’t Arequipa need a subway? They’ve already got one, it’s called the sewers.
People from Piura are supposed to be lazy A Piura guy is lying on the floor. He shouts to his wife “Can you get me the scorpion antidote?”
“Did one bite you honey?”
“Not yet, but I see it coming”
A German friend once told me, after I’d praised a Bavarian, that Bavarians are the missing link between humans and Italians.
From here in Minnesota, we can confirm that: all the stereotypes about cheese-heads are true. (Except Brett Favre.)
Realistically, I think most areas make jokes about their nearest neighbors. In Minnesota we make jokes about dumb Iowans, a friend from Iowa told me they tell the same jokes about Missouri, who probably tell the same jokes about Arkansas (where they can’t even match up the spelling & the pronunciation of the state name!).
But this seems to be a long-standing tradition, world-wide.
Didn’t ancient Israelites make jokes about Samaritans in the Bible?
