If I tell you you have a small penis, you’ll think it’s weird, and if I tell you that you’re waving around your big dick, you’ll think it’s weird. It’s so frustrating–how am I supposed to say anything to you at all?
My honest interpretation of the joke, and it’s through my own filters, is this:
Dirty Johnny is a smart ass. If he can make a joke, he will.
He’s also a bit wise beyond his years. Part of the humor is hearing something adult come out of a child’s mouth.
And in his crude way, he thinks he’s complimenting her, but he’s just stating a fact like “The grass is green.” Saying she’s attractive is just an honests observation.
He isn’t challenging her authority; he just doesn’t think twice about the appropriateness of his comment. He says what’s on his mind, unvarnished and unfiltered, as kids sometimes do.
So maybe that’s a gender driven interpretation but that’s what it means to me. I guess it’s like interpreting a poem or something; what one person takes away isn’t the only thing you could find in there. I think I can see where you’re coming from.
As for telling women I work with that they’re hot, I never would phrase it that way. And besides, Mrs L would take a very dim view of it. 
You tell me; how would you like to be complimented?
A limerick packs joke, anatomical,
Into space that is quite economical.
But the good ones I’ve seen
So seldom are clean,
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.
“You’re an eight”? :facepalm: And I thought the pun was that it was a complete non sequitur! Thanks!
I agree.
In my defense, I was spitballing, and did admit in the next sentence that would probably go off the rails, hard.
I appreciate all of these:
Except:
It’s the opinion of a man, not of a boy. That is, it’s a sexualized opinion.
Men routinely say stuff like that to women. It’s not at all surprising to hear things like that from an adult man.
So i read it as a vignette of a boy coming into his manhood, and because of that, he can now sit in judgement over an adult women who previously had authority over him. So, i imagine that for a man, there’s a little bit of joy of coming into power embedded in that story.
Or an adolescent, in transition between those two, as you say later? I remember being a total horndog when that transition was in motion. Adolescent male thoughts are really much worse than an adult’s, IME.
Again, IMO we can each interpret it and get different results, like a poem or whatever, and each have valid reads. I think he’s commenting on her desirability. Why does he want or need power over her—I think he wants her sexually, sure. But are you saying that his approval or disapproval matters to her, giving him power? I imagine the teacher thinks he’s a pipsqueak and whatever desires she may have for a male, he isn’t it by a longshot.
There’s a Calvin and Hobbes where Calvin is telling Susie it must be terrible being a girl etc. and he wonders what she has to look forward to. Susie replies something to the effect, “The thought of one of you jerks asking me for a date in about ten years.”
That more nearly describes my experience, i.e. the females had the power when I was a minor. But I wasn’t an alpha male so there’s that.
I guess i read it as his sitting in judgement over her. Or, at least, thinking he is.
Use the word urinate, refer to big tits and dirty Johnny schools the Teach?
I wouldn’t laugh at that tiresome obviously juvenile “joke”.
Post 1444 from the More Jokes Thread, posted by Lancia, who is a schoolteacher: It seems to be relevant here.
I just told this joke to my students because, hey, its a nice clean joke that’s totally appropriate for the classroom and everyone is still talking about the Super Bowl and football in general so why not. Little did I know they’d be able to one-up me (or you, as it so happens). As soon I tell the punchline a voice in the back row shouts out:
"Hey Lancia, what did Cinderella do when she got to the ball?
Me: Um… … hmm… …?
Student: She gagged.
Much laughter from the room, the boys making disgusting simian sounds and congratulating each other on their wicked sense of humor while I get to spend 2 or 3 minutes trying to get everyone back on track. That’ll teach me to tell an innocent joke in class.
Poor dude! What happened to the other one?
Those were your friends. How about if your enemies did it?
A post on a message board isn’t the same thing as a joke among friends who all know each other well. Nobody reading the post can tell whether you’re a member of the group you’re telling the joke on, or whether you intend to be mean, loving, or just plain careless.
I’ve read a lot of jokes in that joke thread; and many of them aren’t poking at anybody. There are a lot of jokes in the world that rely on making fun of somebody, yes. But those are most certainly not the only kind of jokes that exist. I’m puzzled by people who think the only kind of humor is the kind that puts somebody else down.
In most contexts, don’t comment on other people’s bodies, no matter what gender they are.
There are contexts in which it’s OK or even a good idea to do so. Beauty contests, say. Or some contexts with your significant other, family, close friends: in which you ought to know the person well enough to be able to tell whether it is such a context.
You seriously think that any kid old enough to make such a joke wouldn’t think it a deliberate challenge to make it in class and at his teacher?
Did you talk about your teachers’ tits to their faces when you were in school?
I had been avoiding the thread, because I was afraid it was full of unpleasant humor. But when a lot of reports came in, and the mods who had been dealing with the thread were obviously at the end of their patience, I offered to step up. So I ended up reading a lot of jokes.
And I was really surprised at how many were funny and also nice. Jokes that made me smile, or even chuckle, that weren’t poking fun at anyone. Yeah, there are definitely lots of completely appropriate jokes there. Also, there are a lot of funny Dopers.
I meant to add that she still has power. After his wisecrack, I imagine him in the principal’s office, explaining himself to his parents etc.
Duly noted.
You’re asking me if I seriously think X about a joke? By definition they’re often pushing boundaries to try to be funny. But ok, yes. Not all kids, but at least a few are off in their own world, oblivious to how they should act or speak.
No. But this isn’t about average kids…Dirty Johnny is an outlier. And jokes aren’t entirely reality based. Could it have happened somehow, somewhere?
Once we start discussing jokes they’re no longer funny. I’ve had to explain a few of my own, take my word.
yeah, poor Dirty Johnny. He’s going to be a failure in life, and all because his parents named him “dirty”.
Thanks for playing!
Huh, the polls ended up not all that different. At first they looked like they were telling different stories. But the first shows:
9 don’t think it’s offensive
8 think it’s a little offensive
8 think it’s moderately to severely offensive
and only 24 people voted…
(plus some other answers in the click-on-many poll)
and the second shows
7 men think it’s offensive
4 men think it’s not offensive
4 women think it’s offensive
1 woman thinks it’s not offensive